Kony's cannibals: Commander 'ordered
his men to cook and eat captured civilians and use rape to train child fighters
in Uganda'
A former Lord's Resistance Army commander ordered his men to
cook and eat the flesh of abducted civilians and used rape to turn children
into sex slaves or soldiers, a court has heard.
Dominic Ongwen, himself a former child soldier who rose
through the ranks of Joseph Kony's rebel group, is also accused of slaughtering
locals in a campaign of terror across Uganda.
Surrendering last January after years on the run as one of
the world's most wanted criminals, he faces 70 counts of war crimes and crimes
against humanity at the International Criminal Court
Today's confirmation of charges hearing is a test for
prosecutors who must convince judges that their case, hastily reinvestigated
since his surrender, is strong enough to merit a trial.
Prosecutor Ben Gumpert told judges Kony found children
easiest to shape by a process of brutalisation into the fighters he needed.
Ongwen, by turns generous and cruel, played a role in this.Mr Gumpert said: 'Witnesses tell of how he instructed his
personal escorts to administer dreadful beatings and... even, on at least one
occasion, to kill, cook and eat civilians who had been abducted in attacks.'
Ongwen was the 'tip of the spear' of the group which sowed
terror in northern Uganda, he claimed, and was one of the group's most senior
commanders for more than a decade.
Prosecutors allege that from 2002 to 2005, Ongwen 'bears
significant responsibility' for 'terrifying attacks' in northern Uganda when
civilians were treated by the rebel group as 'the enemy'.
Dressed in a grey suit, lilac shirt and grey tie, Ongwen,
who turned himself in to US special forces in January 2015, listened intently
to the prosecutor. He is alleged to have led attacks on four displaced persons
camps into which civilians had been driven by the LRA's bloody campaign.
'This was not just a civil war between people in uniform, Mr
Gumpert said. 'The LRA attacked ordinary Ugandan citizens who wanted no more
than to live their lives.
'Large numbers lost their lives in indiscriminate acts of
murder. Some were tortured in cruel ways.
'Hundreds were abducted to carry away the loot, and if they
could not walk fast enough, they were beaten.'
Nursing mothers whose babies slowed up the progress or who simply cried
too loudly saw them killed or thrown into the bush and left behind,' Mr Gumpert
said.
Nursing mothers whose babies slowed up the progress or who simply cried
too loudly saw them killed or thrown into the bush and left behind,' Mr Gumpert
said.
A video taken by Ugandan authorities showed thatched huts
burned to the ground and abandoned corpses of children in shallow graves in the
aftermath of an attack.
More than 130 people - many of them children and babies -
died in these attacks and dozens of others were abducted, prosecutors said.
He added that Ongwen played a crucial role in transforming
abducted children into soldiers, whom Kony saw as 'most easily molded into the
ruthless killers he needed'.
They were forced to perform 'individual acts of torture and
murder designed to convince recently abducted children that they were so
steeped in blood that there could be no acceptance for them back in civilian
society,' Mr Gumpert said.
Ongwen, first indicted in 2005 and sent to the court a year
ago, is the only member of Kony's murderous army in the court's custody.
Kony remains free despite years of efforts in Northern
Uganda and neighboring countries to track down and capture him. Several other indicted members of the group, which rose
against Ugandan President Yoweri Musuveni in the late 1980s, are believed dead.
Ongwen, born in 1975, was visibly ill at ease in an
environment very different from that in which he had spent his life after being
abducted as a child, rising to say he did not need to hear the charge sheet. 'Whether the charges are read or not, it is all going to be
a waste of time,' he said in his native Achioli language through an
interpreter. 'You may speak five words and only two are true
Mr Gumpert said Ongwen's own traumatic childhood could at
most be a mitigating circumstance at sentencing. 'Child abusers are overwhelmingly likely to have been abused
themselves as children,' he said. Following the hearing, the judges will then have to
determine if Ongwen should stand trial. Ten of the charges against Ongwen were
kept secret for 'security reasons'.
Lawyers for Ongwen, who pleads not guilty, will argue for
the charges to be dropped next week.
A former child-soldier-turned-warlord, Ongwen, whose surname
translates to 'White Ant' in his native Acholi language, was Kony's one-time
deputy.
The LRA is accused of slaughtering more than 100,000 people
and abducting 60,000 children in its bloody rebellion against Kampala. It first emerged in northern Uganda in 1986, where it
claimed to fight in the name of the Acholi ethnic group against the government
of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. But over the years it has moved freely across porous
regional borders, shifting from Uganda to sow terror in southern Sudan before
heading into northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and finally crossing
into southeastern Central African Republic in March 2008.
Combining religious mysticism with a bent for astute
guerrilla tactics and bloodthirsty ruthlessness, Kony has turned scores of
young girls into his personal sex slaves while claiming to be fighting to
impose the Bible's Ten Commandments.
Experts believe Ongwen fled after falling out with Kony and
almost being killed.
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