The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has called for the urgent contribution of Euro 5 million (about 19.8 billion shillings) to aid the start of delivery of reparations to victims of former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen.
This is the first funding appeal the TFV board of directors has made to the ICC member states, corporations, private individuals, and organizations following its 26th meeting held at The Hague in the Netherlands from June 19 to 21 this year.
The funding appeal seeks to raise funds for expeditious delivery of reparation to address the urgent needs of victims of sexual and gender-based violence, former child soldiers, and victims of attacks by Ongwen in Northern Uganda.
It comes about four months after the Judges at the ICC Trial Chamber IX on February 28 ordered Ongwen to pay a total of Euro 52.4 million (about 223 billion shillings) in compensation to more than 40,000 victims. The ordered reparations include symbolic payments, rehabilitation measures, as well as other symbolic and satisfaction measures.
In a press statement released on June 27, the Trust Fund for Victims noted that it intends to mobilize at least EUR 5 million per year to progressively implement the Ongwen Reparations Order after fulfilling its first funding appeal.
Currently, the TFV Secretariat is undertaking the 5th week of victim-centered, participatory consultations with more than 2,000 potentially eligible victims of attacks in Northern Uganda.
The consultations are taking place in the former Internally Displaced People’s Camps in Abok in Apac District, Lukodi in Gulu District, Odek in Omoro District, and Pajule in Pader District.
According to the Trust Fund for Victims, the consultation will also cover potentially eligible victims of sexual and gender-based violence and former child soldiers who were abducted from all over northern Uganda within the scope of the conviction.
While the world court found Ongwen indigent to Pay the 223 billion shillings’ reparation order to his victims, the ICC Registrar Ozvaldo Zavala Giler during his visit to Uganda in May this year reassured the victims that the reparation would be delivered.
This is despite Giler’s admission that the Trust Fund for Victims doesn’t have enough money and was relying on contributions from member states and well-wishers to supplement the reparation awards.
“I am confident that there is enough interest in the International donor-based community to support the efforts of the Trust Fund in trying to achieve its goal,” said Giler.
In April, Ongwen through his defence lawyer appealed against the reparation order asking the appeals chamber to suspend the implementation of the reparation order.
Giler however said the Trust Fund for Victims will proceed with the implementation of the order until the Appeals Chamber issues a decision.
“Since there is no decision from the appeals chamber yet, all administrative procedures and procedural preparations as provided in the reparation order are underway. So we are already implementing the reparation order unless otherwise instructed by the appeals chamber,” he said.
Ongwen is currently serving a 25-year jail sentence in Norway after the ICC upheld his conviction in December 2022 for 61 counts of war crimes and crimes committed in Northern Uganda between July 1st, 2002, and December 31, 2005.
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