Uganda Considers ICJ Ruling to Pay DR Congo $325Million Unfair and Wrong
The Ugandan government has challenged a ruling ordering it to pay the Democratic Republic of Congo 325 million U.S. dollars in reparations over an atrocious 1998-2003 war between the two nations.
Uganda said it considered as “unfair and wrong” an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling for its responsibility in conflicts in Congo’s Ituri province.
ICJ Chief Judge Joan Donoghue on ordered Uganda to pay the DRC Congo $225 million for damage to persons, $40 million for damage to property, and $60 million for damage to natural resources.
Rulings by the ICJ, which deals with disputes between countries are final and without appeal.
Reacting to the ruling, Uganda’s Attorney General Mr .Kiryowa Kiwanuka said the decision did not meet the standard of fairness.
“We challenge and reject the findings of wrongdoings on the part of the UPDF which was singled out notwithstanding the acknowledgment by the court of the existence of so many belligerents in the conflict,” reads a statement by Kiwanuka.
The dispute was first brought before the United Nations’ premier court in 1999.
Kiwanuka added that the Ugandan government would go on with engaging the DR Congo government to resolve the matter.
“As it turns out, the court’s decision is yet another failure to understand or appreciate African matters and makes no contribution to current efforts at resolving, on our own, the security issues that persist,” he added.
The court ruled in 2005 that Uganda had violated international law by occupying parts of the eastern Congolese province of Ituri with its own troops and sustaining other armed groups during a war that raged from 1998 to 2003.
Initially, the Hague-based court ordered the two countries to negotiate reparations, but in 2015 the DR Congo returned to the tribunal saying there had been no progress in the talks.
The Congo demanded 11 billion dollars in damages from a war that left hundreds of thousands of her people dead and millions displaced.
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