How old is kony

But when the time finally came, in , Ongwen was injured and unable to walk long distances, so he was left behind. In the end, he became a soldier with the Ugandan army, which still employs him. Again, he was following orders, this time fighting against the LRA and his former friends. At that point, the rebels had moved further away, to impenetrable parts of the bush, making escape much less likely, Philip said.

I showed him photographs of Ongwen on trial in The Hague, wearing a suit, his hair short in contrast to the narrow dreadlocks he used to have, his face shaved. Philip beamed. He had never seen these images before. He wore brown leather shoes, ironed office trousers, a light yellow shirt and a mask, and he waited quietly until I approached him. We sat on a couch, him leaning in when he wanted to make sure I understood something.

His story was carefully laid out, memories organised in his head with precision. He threw out names, years and locations, glossing over a decade at one point, but then honing in on movements, missions, individuals and their ranks. They all wanted to defect, he said. Sam was abducted as a child, along with 12 other family members. If any one of them had tried to get away, the others would have been ordered to beat that person to death a punishment that corresponds with accounts from other LRA victims.

He said he personally commanded Ongwen between and Civilians had been killed by both sides, he admitted, and of course they had kidnapped children.

Then Sam listed off all the other commanders who were allowed to return home, like him, without charges. The greatest target still at large is Kony. Sam still believes Kony had strong spiritual powers, which he used to predict and control events.

We were sitting in a restaurant. After the interview ended, he ate chips and meat. We began speaking about coronavirus, and he paused to look up, readying himself to tell me something important. Joseph also spent 17 years in the bush, where there was no education, except military training, and he heard constant condemnation of the Ugandan government.

Joseph remembered his early years with the LRA as a constant longing for food and family. LRA fighters began to feel the injustices done to them were too much to bear. Joseph believes that the world is biased, that those with strength get the most support, and that the International Criminal Court case is one-sided.

And I knew nothing about the government [at that] time. After Joseph was taken, he heard that three of his brothers were shot dead by the Ugandan army. His mother was injured but survived. Northern Uganda is still suffering, he said.

The last judge is God. His life is a long way from what it was, they said, and he was certainly eating well. Komakech Henry Kilama, a human-rights lawyer based there, travelled to the Netherlands shortly before the coronavirus lockdown. Ongwen spoke of his plans to learn traditional healing, either inside prison or if he is freed from it. Like everyone else, Kilama wonders what the outcome of the case will be, and what it means for peace and justice in this region.

This defendant was stripped of amnesty , and his case has gone on since , with many delays and adjournments. Because of his involvement in the case, Kilama had a police escort, a short man in a black beret and shiny boots who stood outside as we spoke. These people have been fighting all these years… They will escape and start another war. So is the government ready? Since its establishment, there have only been eight , along with four acquittals.

The Hague court is also under increasing attack from the United States. Along with that, there are concerns about how much the court costs. An spokesperson for the International Criminal Court declined to be interviewed for this article, saying they will not comment while the Ongwen case is before judges.

Yet the numbers of refugees have been found to be inflated, and corruption scandals related to donor funding are ongoing. A lot of reporting during the war included allegations that the Ugandan military was deliberately prolonging the LRA conflict, because of the amount of money it was generating. And, certainly, it seems like the International Criminal Court indictments hindered reconciliation. They spoke about friendships they nourished, spiritual miracles they witnessed and the power they felt.

They would speak of the nice clothes they had, and the celebrations they organized. At first sight, the photographs mirror practices in wider Ugandan society, and are not very different from ordinary family photos. They show people posing as friends, in pairs, suggesting a familial bond. In the words of a former rebel:. That day is a good day: you eat well, and you look smart. We put our nice clothes on, and we have our photo snapped. The bigger commanders, some of them would dress very nicely!

Yet, at the same time, the photographs reflect the violence and coercion of which they are part. For example, the photographs show the pleasure of certain individuals, but not of everyone: not all fighters had nice clothes to pose in, or the opportunity of posing in front of a camera. The clothes worn show the inequality, particularly among the women: the clothes were looted by the men, and not equally distributed among the women. In the bush, we had very nice clothes.

A nice dress means that the husband loves you. They come to Uganda, and they get all these clothes, and they take it to the bush. The choice to do so is out of love. Sometimes a man has eight wives; he only gives to his favorites. This often provokes jealousy: the other wives could not get any of the nice clothes, and they also could not pose for the photo. It only were the favorites who were able to do so! Given the fact that clothes were often the result of looting, they themselves are a testimony to the violence both outside and within the army.

For some, the act of being photographed was outright negative: not everyone felt happy posing in front of the camera. Evelyn Amony: I was kidnapped on my way back home from school in Atiak in northern Uganda on 25 August, I met the LRA along the way. I was with about five other children, but only three of us were abducted, because they only wanted young children, they did not want anyone above the age of 15 years.

I asked the men who abducted me if we had to walk through the bush to reach Kampala instead of taking the road. They told me it was the shortest way. UN News Centre: You were years-old. Is it possible for you to explain what was going through your mind? Evelyn Amony: It was not easy for me that day, because it was the first time [I saw] the LRA and it was also the first time that I had to carry heavy luggage.

Evelyn Amony: There was no way for me to communicate with my parents. On the second night with the LRA, I witnessed them kill another abducted child who attempted to escape. That scared me so, so much that I had to let go of the idea of escaping. UN News Centre: What went through your mind, watching another child being killed? I saw how they used a machete to slice the person and ever since that day the picture of how that person was killed has remained on my mind.

Evelyn Amony: That was a very terrible day in my life, because the people who abducted me were fighting among themselves over me. They were fighting over who would take me as their wife. I was only 12 years old. I used to hear from my parents and others describing him as a short man with a very long beard. So when I was abducted, I kept looking for a man who looked [like that]. When we reached Sudan, the moment I turned 14 years — that was the point he turned me into his wife.