‘Your Ruling Is An Indicator That You Don’t Understand African Issues, We Shall Do It Our Way’!- Uganda Rejects ICJ Order To Pay DRC $325M Compensation
By Uganda Online Media
Kampala: The government of Uganda has challenged the decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Uganda to compensate DR Congo.
The ICJ said Uganda should pay Congo $325m over a conflict that lasted from 1998 until 2003.
The ICJ, which is the UN’s top court based in The Hague delivered its ruling on Wednesday. DR Congo sought $11b in reparations over the devastating two-decade conflict.
Judges at ICJ said Kinshasa had failed to prove that Uganda held direct responsibility for any more than 15,000 of hundreds of thousands of deaths in the conflict.
‘’The court sets out the total amount of compensation awarded to the DRC, which is 325 million US dollars’’. Joan Donoghue, the chief judge of the UN court said.
However, the Uganda government through the Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka has challenged the ruling saying it’s outrageous and did not meet the standard of fairness as expected.
‘’We challenge and reject the findings of wrongdoing on the part of the UPDF which was singled out. This notwithstanding the acknowledgment by the court of the existence of so many belligerents in the conflict. The UPDF was and remains a disciplined force. And a force for good in all the countries it has operated in to this day,’’ Kiryowa Kiwanuka said in a statement
According to Uganda, the conflict from which the dispute arose got resolved in a peace accord in Lusaka. This confirmed the existence of the problems faced by the countries neighboring the DRC.
”As it turns out, the court’s decision is yet another failure to understand or appreciate African matters according to the government. They said the court makes no contribution to current efforts at resolving, on their own, the security issues that persist,” Kiwanuka added.
According to Kiwanuka, the court’s decision will not deter Uganda from engaging DRC to resolve the matter.
