ICC awards $56 million in reparations to thousands of victims of convicted Ugandan rebel commander

By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Judges at the International Criminal Court have awarded reparations of more than 52 million euros ($56 million) to thousands of victims of a convicted commander in the shadowy Ugandan rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army. The nearly 50,000 victims covered by the order include former child soldiers and children born as a result of rapes and forced pregnancies. The presiding judge says victims would each receive 750 euros ($812) as a “symbolic award” while other reparations would come in the form of community-based rehabilitation programs. Dominic Ongwen had been convicted of 61 offenses including murders, rapes, forced marriages and recruiting child soldiers.