AMSTERDAM: A former senior rebel commander from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda will appear before the International Criminal Court on Thursday for a hearing to decide whether his war crimes trial should go ahead. Dominic Ongwen, who gave himself up in the Central African Republic in January 2015 after years on the run, is accused of participating in the LRA’s alleged crimes, including kidnapping and the enslavement and rape of children. Under its chief Joseph Kony, the LRA first took up arms against Uganda in the 1980s, gaining a reputation for massacres and mutilating victims. Prosecutors accuse Ongwen of planning or directly leading attacks against four camps in northern Uganda in 2003 and 2004 as well as of kidnapping children to serve as soldiers, forced wives or sex slaves to LRA commanders. Thursday’s confirmation of charges hearing is a test for prosecutors who must convince judges that their decade-old case, hastily reinvestigated since Ongwen’s surrender a year ago, is strong enough to merit a full trial on the facts.