Lord’s Resistance Army Commander Held In Central Africa

Dominic Ongwen

                    A senior commander of the militant Lord’s Resistance Army that has operated in central Africa for three decades is in custody after surrendering, Ugandan Deputy Chief of Defense Forces Charles Angina said.

U.S. military forces detained an individual claiming to be a defector from the LRA who identified himself as Dominic Ongwen, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters yesterday in Washington. Ongwen is among at least four LRA commanders, including the group’s leader, Joseph Kony, wanted since 2005 by the International Criminal Court on crimes against humanity and war-crimes charges.

Ongwen’s defection has delivered a major blow to the group, Kasper Agger, an expert on the LRA with the Washington-based conflict resolution group, Enough Project, said in a phone interview from the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

“Ongwen has been one of Kony’s top proteges, rising in the ranks since 1990, when he was abducted as a child soldier at the age of 10,” said Agger. “As part of the LRA’s core command, his surrender is a very significant step in the efforts to bring a final end to the LRA.”

The LRA was founded by Kony, a former Catholic altar boy in Uganda who says the group is inspired by the Christian bible’s 10 commandments. The ICC charges against Kony include murder, mutilation, rape and abducting and turning 30,000 children into sex slaves and killers.
Death, Displacement

The group, which emerged in the 1980s, was driven from Uganda by that country’s army in 2004 and has scattered into neighboring countries, displacing 161,000 people in Central African Republic, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo.

The LRA has about 500 remaining combatants, and still poses a threat with the capacity to attack and “terrorize,” according to the United Nations. The LRA carried out almost 120 assaults, resulting in a reported seven deaths and 307 kidnappings, in the first half of last year, the UN said.

The U.S. deployed about 100 combat-equipped forces to central Africa in 2011 to assist in the hunt for Kony.

Ongwen would probably be tried in a Ugandan court if the U.S. hands him over to the East African nation’s authorities, Agger said. “President Museveni has been so critical of the ICC recently, so I think it is unlikely Uganda will hand him over to ICC,” he said.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni last month urged African nations to withdraw from the Rome Statue, a treaty that created the ICC, amid accusations by some members of the African Union that the court unfairly targets people from the continent, the Nairobi-based East African newspaperreported.