Ugandan Victims of Former Rebel Leader React to His 25-Year Jail Sentence

KAMPALA, UGANDA - Ugandan victims of former Lord’s Resistance Army Commander Dominic Ongwen are not happy about the 25-year prison sentence given to him by the International Criminal Court. One victim has called the sentence a joke.

In handing down the sentence Thursday, ICC judges said they had to consider the fact that Ongwen had been abducted and recruited into the rebel group at age 9. The judges noted that while the former LRA commander had committed many crimes, Ongwen, too, lost family, had his education interrupted and saw his hopes for a bright future end the day he was abducted. In February, Ongwen was found guilty of 61 charges for attacking civilian populations and committing atrocities, including murder, torture, enslavement and gender-based crimes such as forced marriages, rape, forced pregnancies and sexual slavery of young girls.