War victims turn to ICC for compensation

Munyonyo

Lillian Andia was captured by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels 12 years ago at the age of nine. She was preparing to do her Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) in Gulu. At the brutal hand of the LRA’s elusive leader, Joseph Kony, she first tirelessly worked as house maid to an influential commander before being forcefully married to Lt Okot Odek.

“Of course he (Lt Okot) already had many other women but I could do nothing because resisting orders of commanders come with severe punishment,” Ms Andia, 23, who spoke through an interpreter, narrated her ordeal to Daily Monitor yesterday.

She is part of the large group of the war victims that want to be compensated for suffering at the hands of LRA following ‘government failure to protect them from the attacks.’ The group, which was yesterday at the People’s Space in Munyonyo, appealed to the ICC State parties to urgently address the plight of the victims.

“I got pregnant at the age of 15 but because of poor care and lack of experienced birth attendants, I had a stillbirth and the baby was rudimentary pulled out of her womb, the pain was so immense that I became unconscious for several hours,” she painfully narrates.

Six months later, Andia got pregnant again, although this time she gave birth, she says she doesn’t want to remember the ordeal she went through. On the eve of her escape, five boys under her care escaped and her punishment was 100 strokes. She was tied to a tree and beaten, she says. She was also cut on the back with a machete. “Because I was frail and in pain, they did not think I would escape. However, I had made up my mind already to escape. Together with three Congolese boys and my two children we escaped at night,” Andia says. “I didn’t know where we would end up but I believed that we would find safety.”

Ms Andia is among those who recently escaped from the claws of Kony and his brutal commanders. “I am not sure whether the ICC will bring peace but what I expect from this conference is that the plight of the victims is addressed through compensation,” she said. Like many other girls who escaped, she has two children to take care of and ensure they get a descent education that she was not able to get because the LRA. “My two children are of school-going age already, so I need help to see them through school,” She said. Daily Monitor established that she has since gone back to Primary Seven to complete her studies.

Meanwhile, the Director of Africa Youth Initiative Alliance, Mr Victor Ochen, who miraculously survived the LRA wants the on-going review conference to among other things, commit the state parties to fund the recovery programmes for war victims.
The Executive Director of Hurrinet, Mr Muhammad Ndifuna, supports the compensation of the victims but stressed that the government should be the one to pick the bills since it failed to protect its citizens from rebel attacks.