BBC
LRA leader Dominic Ongwen arrives at Hague court
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Mr Ongwen in 2005Top Ugandan rebel commander Dominic Ongwen has arrived in The Hague to stand trial on war crimes charges.
Mr Ongwen, a feared commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), was taken into US custody in the Central African Republic (CAR) earlier this month.
Uganda agreed that he should be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC), despite being a fierce critic of The Hague-based court.
US and African forces had been searching for Mr Ongwen since 2011.
He is said to be the deputy to LRA commander Joseph Kony, who is still on the run.
The ICC said in a statement that Mr Ongwen would be held in a detention centre in the Netherlands until his trial.
He was due to undergo a medical visit upon his arrival and a date would soon be set for his first court appearance, the statement added.
The UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon both issued statements welcoming Mr Ongwen’s transfer. Mr Ban called it “a step forward in efforts to bring justice to the thousands of victims of LRA violence”.
‘Hope for survivors’
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also welcomed the move, saying: “Today’s developments give hope – to the survivors, to the four countries affected by the LRA, and to their partners around the world – that the nightmare of the LRA can be brought to an end.
“We call on the remaining LRA members to follow the lead of the more than 250 individuals who have left the LRA since 2012 to put down their arms and return home.”
The US is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, but it facilitated his transfer to the ICC.
It offered a $5m (£3.3m) reward in 2013 for information leading to Mr Ongwen’s arrest.
He is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including enslavement.
The LRA rebellion began more than two decades ago in northern Uganda and its estimated 200-500 fighters have since terrorised large swathes of the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and the CAR.
