Mixed reactions as ICC jails Ongwen for 25 years

A 25-year-jail term handed yesterday to Dominic Ongwen, a former commander of a rebel outfit headed by Joseph Kony,  has been received with mixed feelings by survivors of the two-decade war and local leaders.

Some described the sentence as a “mockery” of Justice while others said it was “satisfactory”.

Ms Roselyn Acaa, a resident of Lukodi Trading Centre, who lost her two sons during the two-decade insurgency, said prosecuting Ongwen was a waste of time and that it instead reignites the traumatic experiences the victims suffered.

“I have nothing to do with him (Ongwen) and his trial is to the disadvantage of many of us like me who lost children. They are wasting time and bringing back the bad memories to haunt us again,” Ms Acaa said.

Another war affected resident Timothy Laloyo said the magnitude of atrocities committed by Ongwen and group should have attracted more years than what the court served to him.

“I am disappointed with the court, reason being that 25 years is little. Remember they will be counting both day and night of his time there according to court. He has been on remand for the past six years, which means he could remain with only 19 years,” an agitated Laloyo said.

“Can you imagine that for the past years that we suffered in displacement, we lost our land and other properties, right now, we are having wounds that the government has failed to heal because of the war, Ongwen deserved more years,” he added.

Mr Constantine Okwonga, a resident of Pece-Pawel Village in Gulu City, said the 25-year-jail term would have been fitting to Ongwen if at all the court added five years to make 30.
Yesterday, in a majority 2:1, the Hague-based court jointly sentenced Ongwen to 25 years imprisonment.

“…it (sentence) adequately reflects the strongest condemnation by the international community of the crimes committed by Dominic Ongwen and acknowledges the great harm and suffering caused to the victims,” Presiding judge, Bertram Schmitt, who read the summary of the sentence on behalf of the court, indicated.

Justice Raul Cano Pangalangan, the only judge out of the three, partly dissented by proposing a 30-year-jail term, which was inconsequential.
The court further said they would deduct the number of years Ongwen has been in detention from the 25.

The detention period to be considered is between January, 4, 2015 and yesterday when he was sentenced, totaling to six years.
Justice Schmitt named the aggravating circumstances such as cruelty, multiplicity of victims, the victims being particularly defenceless and discrimination on political grounds and discrimination against women. 

Ongwen was in February this year found guilty of a total of 61 crimes comprising war crimes and crimes against humanity arising out of the two-decade war in northern Uganda that left more than 100,000 killed,  nearly two million displaced and up to 10,000 abducted or missing.

While reading yesterday’s sentence, the judge also observed that Ongwen’s case confronted them with a very unique situation because Ongwen had previously endured extreme suffering at the hands of Kony’s rebels before growing through the ranks.

The early childhood mitigation factors such as his abduction by Kony’s rebels at a very young age of nine years and his early stay with the LRA made the court arrive at 25 years instead of the maximum sentence of 30 years or life imprisonment.

However, the court rejected Ongwen’s call for a lesser sentence claiming he had been of unsound mind during the time he committed the atrocities.

The court also rejected the plea by the defence team to incorporate the Acholi traditional justice mechanisms while sentencing Ongwen.

The court explained that there exists no possibility under the Rome Statute to replace a term of imprisonment with traditional justice mechanisms such as mato-oput, or to incorporate traditional justice mechanisms into the sentence.  
The court also issued an order for submissions on reparations (compensation of Kony war victims).

Ongwen is going to be held at the ICC detention centre until the 30 days in which he is to appeal the sentence. Should the 30 days period pass without Ongwen appealing the sentence, then he will be taken to a prison of one of the member countries of the Rome Statute from where he will serve the jail term.

The court also said when Ongwen serves 2/3 of the sentence, the remaining period will be revised, possibly downwards.  
ICC sentences range up to 30 years imprisonment and under exceptional circumstances, life imprisonment or a fine can be imposed.

[email protected]