At home with Dominic Ongwen’s children

It’s 12.30pm on a Wednesday afternoon. The sun’s piercing rays cannot be ignored in Coorom village, Lamogi Sub-county, Amuru District as we approach the ancestral home of the former Lord’s Resistance Army rebel leader, Maj Gen Dominic Ongwen to meet his children.
The roaring sound of the motorcycle announces our presence in the homestead as both the young and the old rush to witness the visitors in their compound. Our source, Christopher Kilama, a younger brother to Ongwen, is the first one to emerge, welcoming us with a wide smile. Shortly after exchanging pleasantries, he says, “The children are not here, let us go to the second home a short distance from here. That is where they are at the moment.”
At the said home, we are welcomed by a little girl in a red dress paired with silver earrings. With a beaming smile she seems to welcome us before dashing back into the huts.
Kilama tells us the little girl is Nancy*, 6, one of Ongwen’s many children born while he was still in captivity. Nancy reappears with two other pale children, *Pule, 4, and Ronald , 3 and half years-old, both Ongwen sons.
The children go about in circles until my colleague pulls out his camera. The smile on Nancy’s face quickly disappears and she runs back into the hut leaving her siblings unattended.
When we ask her guardian, Magdalena Akot, why the little girl had run away, she says, Nancy just like the rest of Ongwen’s brood, is weary of equipment they do not know perhaps a reminder of their stay in captivity.
Akot says Ongwen’s children were brought to her home last year in September by Gulu Support the Children’s Organisation (GUSCO), after being rescued by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces in Democratic Republic of Congo.
“When they were brought, they had sores all over their bodies; all of them were malnourished. They never wanted to associate with any one, and they could sit together and remain quiet for days,” Akot says.
She recalls how they would run screaming and hide whenever they saw a car, motorcycle or even a helicopter flying past the homestead. Akot adds that the children are slowly adjusting although they suffer setbacks at times.
At the moment, Akot is worried about the children’s future. She says, “the older one (Nancy) keeps talking about guns, and she is rough with other fellow children while the little ones ( Pule and Ronald) are always quiet.”
Asked whether the children have been taken through any rehabilitation, Akot says although they requested for the same from GUSCO, the institution declined, citing financial difficulties.
When we asked about the whereabouts of the children’s mother, Akot says the family does not know.
Asked if these children go to school, Kilama, quickly chips in, saying with the limited financial resources the family has, it has been challenging for them to educate the children.
“I am overwhelmed with the number of children I am taking care of at home, yet these children needs professional psychosocial support. It is thus the responsibility of the government and other stakeholders to intervene and give a helping hand,” he says.

Ongwen’s daughter speaks out
We had to pose the questions to Akot, Nancy’s guardian, who in turn asked the little girl.
When asked whether she remembers her father and mother, Nancy responds, “I remember my father, they used to call him Ongwen, and my mother Ayari at the time we were in the bush. Whenever my father went to work he would come back to our home and complain of pain in his legs.”
Evidently Nancy has no idea where her parents are.
She says she would love to visit her parents but fears she may not come back to the place she now calls home.
Nancy also would love to go to school and learn how to speak English like other children.
Second family
Florence Ayot , one of Ogwen’s former wives and mother to *Faith, 12 and *Moses, 9, shares a similar plight. Her daughter who was three when they were rescued from captivity in 2005, still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Ayot, who resides at Holy Rosary Parish in Laroo Division, Gulu Municipality said she surrendered to the UPDF in DRC.
“When I returned, I spent close to eight months at World Vision Rehabilitation Home in Gulu. I was pregnant then and gave birth to Lubangakene at St Mary’s Hospital Lacor. However, to date if I compare the two children, Lubangakene is different from his sister,” Ayot says.
Asked why she believes so, the distressed mother says her daughter has been experiencing nightmares since the age of four.
She says the girl usually wakes up in the middle of the night shouting about gunshots, bombs and killings, which has greatly affected her relationship with other children.
Faith is repeating Primary Five and appears normal. Her mother believes that her memory may have been affected by something gruesome she witnessed while in captivity.
Ayot says she has sought assistance from Watoto Living Hope in Gulu Town, where children who suffer from trauma are rehabilitated, but Faith has not yet responded to it. For now, all Ayot can do is pray about the matter.
While she scratches her head for a solution, she is struggling on what answers to give her children who persistently ask for their father.
“My children are always asking me who their father is, where he is and if they can ever see him.” She adds, “It has not been easy because they [the children] are still young and I cannot reveal to them his identity.

The numbers
According to Akot, who is taking care of Ongwen’s three children, the exact number of Ongwen’s children is unknown because he had many concubines.
She says she knows 14 children who have been rescued. Most of the children are with their mothers and that most of them are below the age of three.

What psychiatrists think
Dr Canan Kateregga, head of Mental Department, Gulu Regional Referral Hospital notes that children who
were once in captivity suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and are most times terrified.
“They experience symptoms such as avoidance whereby they have reminders of what happened when they were in war areas, and flashbacks,” Dr Kateregga says.
He says re-integration takes time because they always have problems adapting to home life, because while in captivity, they were exposed to a violent life.
“Many of them are highly aggressive, get easily irritated and violent. This is why we need urgent professional help for such children to help transform them into better persons” Dr Kateregga says.
The psychiatrist suggests cognitive behaviour therapy where children are assigned to a psychologist whom they can narrate their experiences to. “Repeated narration of their experiences helps the children to get the trauma out of their head. Anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drugs can be used as an alternative measure in treating depression and anxiety” he adds.
Frederick Odong, a psychologist at Peter C Alderman Foundation, at Gulu hospital, says, children born in captivity have interrupted attachment with their parents, adding that they are bred from one foster home to another and have no attachment to their parents, thus influencing their behaviour.
He adds that the period of recovery from trauma depends on intervention.
Angellina Atim, a project coordinator Watye Ki Gen, a community based organisation that counsels children affected by trauma, echoes Dr Kateregga and says most of the children that were once in captivity experience post-traumatic stress disorder.
“After closely working with these children, we have observed that they are stigmatised by the community which has affected the rehabilitation process,” Atim says. She appealed to victims to make use of their services which are available at local hospitals.

ICC’s reaction
While addressing a press conference in Gulu town recently, Maria Mabinty Kamara, the International Criminal Court field outreach coordinator for Kenya and Uganda said ICC will not in any way accord assistance to Ongwen’s children and relatives.
Kamara however, clarified that ICC, only at an appropriate time under the rules of the court can facilitate the family to visit the suspect who is on trial.
For Ongwen’s children, the future stares bleakly at them and nothing short of a miracle can change their fate.

* Names of the children have been changed to protect their identities

WHO IS DOMINIC ONGWEN?

Ongwen was reportedly abducted by LRA, at the age of 10, as he walked to school in Coorom village in Lamogi Sub-county Amuru District. He rose through the ranks to become a top commander in the LRA. He surrendered early this year to the Seleka rebel group in Central African Republic, and was extradited to the International Criminal Court in the Hague where he faces seven counts of war crimes against humanity.
Ongwen was among the five top LRA commanders who the government referred to the ICC in 2005 for indictment on war crimes during the 20-year LRA insurgency in the northern region.
Two of the commanders (Vincent Otti and Raska Lukwiya) have since died, leaving only LRA leader Joseph Kony and Okot Odhiambo who are still at large.
Ongwen appeared in the ICC dock last month, before Justice Ekaterina Trendafilova. Ongwen’s next court appearance is scheduled for August 24, when court will determine whether he should face trial.

BACKGROUND

According to a survey by The National Center for Biotechnology Informof the abducted children in northern Uganda, were reported to have experienced 10 or more war-related traumatic psychological events. Another 55.9 per cent suffered from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, while 88.2 per cent had symptoms of depression while 21.6 per cent had various forms of physical disability.
It’s estimated that more than 30,000 children were abducted during the two decade LRA insurgencies in the north that left 1.5 million civilians displaced and tens of thousands of civilians killed.
The LRA is also accused of widespread human rights violations, including mutilation, torture, slavery, rape, abduction, use of child soldiers and a number of massacres.

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