Kony crimes still felt in Uganda, 20 years on, ICC hears

The consequences of the brutal crimes allegedly committed by Uganda rebel chief Joseph Kony are still reverberating in the country more than 20 years later, an International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Tuesday.

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Kony faces 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture, enslavement and sexual slavery, allegedly committed between July 2002 and December 2005 in northern Uganda.

Opening the hearing — the first-ever held in absentia at the ICC since Kony has been on the run for two decades — prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang said the passage of time had not dulled the impact on Uganda.

"The repercussions of this unprecedented violence continue to be felt today. Scarred in their body and spirit, survivors still struggle to recover from the ordeal they endured," Niang told the court.

"The social and cultural fabric of Uganda has been torn apart and they are struggling to recover," added the prosecutor.

Kony, a former Catholic altar boy, headed the feared Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), whose insurgency against the Ugandan government saw more than 100,000 people killed and 60,000 children abducted, according to the United Nations.