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Former LRA commander pleads not guilty as ICC trial begins

The former Lords Resistance Army commander, Dominic Ongwen, who is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda pleaded 'not guilty' as his trial opened at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday. 

Mr Ongwen who was reportedly abducted by the LRA as a child said he too was a victim. 

"It is the LRA who abducted people in northern Uganda, killed people in northern Uganda and committed atrocities in northern Uganda. I'm one of the people against whom the LRA committed atrocities. It is not me who is the LRA," Mr Ongwen told the judge. 

The cheif ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said however that Mr Ongwen was a "murderer and a rapist". 

Dismissing his claim of being a victim, Ms Bensouda said "it cannot begin to amount to a defence or a reason not to charge him for the choice that he made." 

See here and here

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