On Wednesday, the International Criminal Court ruled that about 50,000 victims of Ugandan militia commander Dominic Ongwen would receive compensation for over 52 million euros ($56 million) in a historic reparations order.
The judges asked the tribunal’s own Trust Fund for Victims to cover the cost of the compensation because the perpetrator, Dominic Ongwen who was a former child soldier and later one of the top commanders of the infamous rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) could not pay the compensation himself.
A symbolic individual payment of 750 euros per victim will be made as part of the reparations, and additional collective reparations such as memorial sites and rehabilitation programs will also be provided.
Ongwen was convicted in 2021 of 60 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape, murder, and kidnapping of children, and currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in Norway.
The rebel group LRA, led by warlord Joseph Kony, tortured Ugandans for almost 20 years while fighting President Yoweri Museveni’s government from strongholds in neighbouring countries and northern Uganda. Though most of the militia has been destroyed, Kony is still one of the most wanted fugitives by the ICC.
A victim of the heinous group whose parents were murdered and was abducted as a child told the press ahead of the ruling that the reparations could only ever be symbolic “because in reality there’s no amount of money that can compensate for the crimes the LRA committed”