THE HAGUE — Nearly 50,000 victims of Ugandan militia commander Dominic Ongwen ought to get a complete of over €52 million ($56 million) in compensation, International Criminal Court judges dominated on Wednesday, in a file reparations order.
Judges stated Ongwen, a former youngster soldier who rose via the ranks to turn into one of many high commanders of the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), didn’t have the sources to pay the compensation himself.
Instead they requested the tribunal’s personal Trust Fund for Victims to assist cowl the fee.
The reparations will probably be within the type of a symbolic particular person cost of 750 euros per sufferer and extra collective reparations like rehabilitation applications and memorial websites.
Ongwen was convicted to 25 years in jail in 2021 on 60 counts of conflict crimes and crimes towards humanity, together with rape, homicide and youngster abduction. He is at the moment serving his sentence in Norway.
Led by fugitive warlord Joseph Kony, the LRA terrorized Ugandans for almost 20 years because it fought the federal government of President Yoweri Museveni from bases in northern Uganda and neighboring nations. The militia has been largely worn out, however Kony stays one of many ICC’s most wished fugitives.
The complete victims are estimated at virtually 50,000 and the chamber calculated the overall sum of the reparations it ordered to be 52.4 million euros.
The judges cautioned that “victims cannot expect payments to be executed soon after the issuance of this reparations order.”
In addition, the judges warned that the Trust Fund for Victims may not give you the chance elevate sufficient cash to match the sum the judges ordered.
The fund depends totally on voluntary contributions and at the start of 2023 it had below 20 million euros in its coffers and far of that was already pledged in different instances. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
