By KT Reporter
The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Victims Participation and Reparations Section (VPRS) is proposing additional time to complete the registration of victims of convicted former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen eligible for reparations.
This comes as registration of both direct and indirect victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity on which Ongwen was convicted commenced in June this year, more than a year after an order of reparations was by the judges at the ICC.
On February 28 2025, the ICC Trial Chamber IX awarded 52.4 million euros (approximately 200 billion shillings) in reparations to an estimated 49,772 victims of Ongwen in Northern Uganda. The reparations will be delivered through symbolic cash payments of € 750, as well as psychological, medical, and socio-economic rehabilitation programmes, among others, in line with an approved implementation plan proposed by the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV).
Agnes Gillian Ocitti, the VPRS field officer in Uganda, however, noted that with the deadline of the registration process looming in February 2026, they are now proposing an extension to enable all eligible victims to participate.
The ICC Trial Chamber initially instructed the Registry to commence the process of identifying potential beneficiaries and assessing their eligibility, and to ensure that the administrative eligibility process is completed within two years.
According to Ocitti, the process of registration was significantly delayed over the past months, which affected the actual registration of the victims on the ground in Northern Uganda.
“On 28th of February 2024, the judges made the order for reparation and gave this process to take two years. And, if you look, one year is already done, because we’re already in 2025 July,” said Ocitti.
Adding, “So it means it should have originally ended next year in February. And yet the process was in one way or another delayed. So we are making requests for extension of time to fill the forms.”
Speaking at the Regional Dialogue to Commemorate the International Justice Day organised by the ICC in Lira City Monday, Ocitti revealed that VPRS has so far hired clerks in all the affected sub-regions of Teso, Acholi, Lango and West Nile to aid the registration process.
She noted that the number of forms being filled by the victims is currently overwhelming, adding that daily, about 64 household forms are returned to the clerks in the respective areas.
Ocitti didn’t specifically provide the exact timeline VPRS needs to complete the registration of the victims, arguing that she was sure of what the legal team would present to the ICC judges.
“I’m not exactly sure what the legal team are presenting to the judges, but it’s something that they have already notified us that they are requesting for the extension of time. But we also want to see by the end of the year how far we have gone with filling of the forms,” she said.
Without giving exact figures, Ocitti noted that the first batch of names of some victims who participated in the trial of Ongwen has already been submitted to the TFV pending assessment.
More than 4,000 victims from Northern Uganda were admitted by the court to participate in the trial of Ongwen, who is now serving 25 25-year jail sentence in Norway.
Amuru Resident District Commissioner Osborn Oceng, during the dialogue, however, raised concerns over allegations that some of the victims who had moved out of the former Internally Displaced People’s Camps in rural areas were being denied the registration processes.
Oceng called on the ICC outreach team to find ways of accommodating all the victims in the registration process so that it doesn’t cause tension within the community that is still recovering from the effects of the war.
His counterpart, the Agago Resident District Commissioner Kidega Nok Nabinson, without disclosing names, alleged that some individuals claiming to work for non-governmental organisations were picking money from locals in the guise of registering them for compensation.
In response, Ocitti, however, noted that victims are being registered both within the case location areas and in urban centres. She explained that the outreach field office hasn’t received any cases of extortion and urged locals to only attend to individuals who have VPRS introduction letters or register online.
Ongwen, a former child soldier turned rebel commander, was in February 2021, convicted of 61 crimes of war and crimes against humanity he committed in the four case locations of Abok in Oyam district, Lukoodi in Gulu District, Pajule and Lapul in Pader district, and Odek in Omoro district.
He is the first senior LRA commander to have been convicted by the ICC.
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