A ferocious assassin, responsible for the deaths of around 100 people, or an ex-child soldier who was a victim of circumstance? Now one of the rebel leaders in the Lord's Resistance Army, the case of Dominic Ongwen, wanted under an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, splits Uganda in two. At least 20 thousand children like him have been abducted and condemned to join the rebel ranks. In view of a possible peace agreement, the debate of their fate grows throughout the country.

Ongwen. Born in the village of Lamogi in the northern district of Gului, Dominic was abducted by rebels in 1986 when according to his family he had just turned ten years old. Regardless of his young age, the official press of the International Criminal Court emphasises to PeaceReporter Florence Olara, "Ongwen has been accused of crimes committed post-2002, by which point he was no longer a minor". However, according to his family, Dominic had no choice – abducted and subjected to tough discipline in LRA camps, is he not a victim of conflict himself?
Frank Nyakairu, Ugandan journalist and expert war reporter who in the last twenty years has instigated at least 25,000 victims, thinks differently. "Ongwen is the number three of the LRA", he tells PeaceReporter, "to the extent that he is able to disobey orders from leader Joseph Kony. And to be in Kony's good books, one needs to have killed as many people as possible".

Crimes. According to the International Criminal Court, which has brought changes against the four highest officials of the group, Ongwen took part in a huge LRA offensive executed in 2002 and costing at least 2,200 people’s lives. The ex-child soldier, who mainly operated in the Padar district, is held responsible for plundering, murder, mutilation and civilian kidnapping. According to recent estimates, 85% of LRA soldiers are children aged between 11 and 15, abducted during village raids. Nyakairu, who recently visited the rebel camps in the forests on the Congo border, claims to have seen masses of boys and also girls (used by the leaders as sex slaves).

Mato oput. Even now, when peace talks underway in southern Sudan have 'frozen' the war in the north, the debate on the fate of the rebels holds strong. The wanted CPI members are asking for the annulment of the charges against them, a condition which The Hague has repeatedly said they cannot and will not carry out.
From some sides it has been proposed to apply ‘Mato oput’ to solve the problem, a common practise for the Acholi communities in northern Uganda, which incites the reconciliation between two people and forgiveness on behalf of the victims under terms of a precise ritual – the victim and the executioner drink an infusion of bitter herbs from the same bowl, a symbol of the pain of the past which both parties must leave behind them.
The difficulty is how to adapt a ritual developed for solving issues between individuals to an overall reconciliation procedure.

Justice. Could Mato oput solve the problem of ex-child soldier's fates? The proposal has met favourable opinion in Uganda but when speaking to PeaceReporter, human rights lawyer Stephen Okello recalls, "besides the Acholis, the war has involved numerous communities in Uganda, Congo and southern Sudan. On this note, the Mato oput system cannot work".
A solution based on traditional justice would remove a huge obstacle on peace talks, even though it comes from the same Ugandan government which called for CPI intervention in 2003. And it's not a given that the victims will accept it. In the north, around 700 thousand people have left refugee camps and the economy is slowly picking itself up again, but, as stressed by Nyakairu, "people want peace, but also justice".