Center for American Progres:LRA’s commander should face ICC over crimes against humanity

An American activist group has expressed their call for the senior commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) who surrendered early this month to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

The Center for American Progress has also said that there is a possibility Dominic Ongwen who joined LRA in 1990 at the age of 10 is bound to receive amnesty from the Ugandan government.

However, the activist group who feel Ongwen should be transferred to ICC believe that the LRA commander will help net other wanted LRA partners.

Ongwen served LRA, a Christian based group accused of numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity in Northern Uganda in 2004 as commander of Sinia Brigade of the movement.

Ongwen is said to have surrendered to U.S. forces in the Central African Republic On January 6 2015 after living in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2006 as a fugitive.

Earlier news sources had reported him dead in 2005 before the confirmation in 2006 that he was alive and operating  in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

With Ongwen's surrender, some voices are calling for him to face trial while others think it only fair for him to receive pardon in Uganda.

Victor Ochen, founding director of local human rights organization, African Youth Initiative Network, and survivor of LRA violence, says, "Generally, it’s quite obvious that people need justice. At this point, whose justice? For the rebel or for the victims of Ongwen's barbaric acts?"

Meanwhile, the other criminals; Joseph Kony, Okot Odhiambo, and Vincent Otti who also perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity such as massacres, abductions, use of children soldiers and sexual enslavement are still at large.