Tapped LRA radio calls pin Ongwen on killings, crimes

Dominic Ongwen (centre), a former senior commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army sits in the courtroom of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands recently. PHOTO BY AFP

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  • The recording. Ex-commander of LRA’s powerful Sinia Brigade is presented as reporting to his boss and former LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti after an attack on Odek IDP camp.

THE HAGUE/ KAMPALA. Secret communication intercepts by the Ugandan army and police have come in handy for prosecution at The Hague to build its case that former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen co-planned and commanded attacks against civilians, church institutions and military targets in northern Uganda.
The trial of Ongwen, who surrendered in January 2015, began on Tuesday at the International Criminal Court (ICC) where he is charged with 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In a lengthy evidence presented to the court over two days, the ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and senior trial lawyer Benjamin Gumpert played what they said were intercepted radio call communications between Ongwen and other LRA commanders, including the leader Joseph Kony.
In one such audio, Ongwen is recorded as reporting to Kony: “We are beginning to kill civilians seriously right now. I have deployed squads for killings and people will hear [about it] on the radio.”
In another audio recording, the former commander of LRA’s powerful Sinia Brigade is presented as reporting to his boss and former LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti after an attack on Odek Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camp: “I have just come from shooting people, over. Let the people wait to hear about the waya (LRA slang for civilians), we have shot all of them.”
The prosecution side states that the evidence showed Ongwen was a “murderer and rapist.”
The audios, prosecution said, were obtained from the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and Uganda Police Force that set different bases in northern Uganda to eavesdrop LRA communication at the height of the insurgency.
The LRA communicated using High Frequency Radio and had a “reliable” method of communicating by radio, prosecution said, adding that the intercepts were reliable, unaffected by the fallibility of the human memory.
“They provide a unique opportunity to step inside the mind of Ongwen,” Mr Gumpert submitted to the court.
Ongwen, who was in court sandwiched between three guards, looked unfazed. One person in the public gallery walked out sobbing as prosecution presented graphic details of how babies were burnt in huts, women indicriminately raped, civilians chopped with machetes or bludgeoned to death with clubs during LRA attacks on the four IDP camps.
Speaking about the May 19, 2004 attack on Lukodi IDP camp, senior trial lawyer Gumpert said the “damage done was so bad that the camp had to be closed...Dominic Ongwen conceived, planned and executed the attack.”
The defence will begin making its submissions mid-January, next year.
The Prosecution said the radio message intercepts were corroborated with hand-written logs by the UPDF, ISO and police spies.
Senior Ugandan security officials will appear as prosecution witnesses, Mr Gumpert said.