Uganda’s attorney general says the country has assured the International
Criminal Court of “full cooperation” on the case of Dominic Ongwen, a
Ugandan rebel commander who faces trial. Peter Nyombi said Monday
that Uganda’s government would help with investigations as well as
identifying witnesses. A team from The Hague is traveling to Uganda next
week to consult with officials.
Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni has been critical of the international court. Nyombi said,
however, that Uganda believes it’s “more convenient for the ICC to try
Ongwen.” The ICC has set Aug. 24 for a hearing to assess if evidence is strong enough to merit a full trial.
Ongwen
faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including
murder, pillage and enslavement for his alleged role in a reign of
terror by warlord Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army that has spanned
more than 25 years in central Africa's Great Lakes region. The
armed group originated in Uganda in the 1980s as a popular tribal
uprising against the government but has often taken advantage of porous
borders across the region to hide and regroup amid an international hunt
for its fugitive leaders.
At
the peak of its powers, the Lord's Resistance Army was notorious for
abducting boys who became fighters and girls who were turned into sex
slaves, one reason for the group's international notoriety. Ongwen, who
became a ruthless rebel commander and one of Kony's top lieutenants, was
himself abducted as a 14-year-old boy in northern Uganda.
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