![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldJonathan Edelstein reports that the International Court of Justice has ruled that Uganda is responsible and financially liable for crimes committed in the course of its occupation of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo during the Second Congo War. As The Monitor of Kampala reports, this judgement
Jonathan notes in the comments to his original post that a likelihood of flexible repayment plan that won't beggar Uganda depends on the DRC's willingness to reach a flexible solution, inasmuch as the ten billion dollars that the DRC government claims as reparations amounts to 130% of Uganda's GDP. Given the four million dead, this hope might just possibly be overoptimistic.
Uganda mainly argued that its troops were in Congo as an act of self defence to neutralise rebels who were operating from there. But the court was mostly basing its decisions on the conduct of the soldiers while there, not so much the reason why they went there.
Given the fact that Uganda's foreign debt stands at over $4 billion, (the recently announced debt relief can take several years to implement, according to donor sources) the amount the country would have to compensate the DRC would treble the total debt burden.
Currently Uganda spends about $200 million per year to service the debt, and at that rate would need 50 years to pay off the Congo fine without paying any of the other creditors.
If all Uganda's tax and non-tax revenue totaling to $700 million per year were to be devoted to paying off the Congo fine, it would take the country 14 years without the government buying a single aspirin or paying a single worker.
[. . .]
The 16-judge panel ruled that Ugandan troops had committed "acts of torture and killing" against Congolese civilians, "trained child soldiers" and "incited ethnic conflict".
Ugandan troops "created an atmosphere of terror pervading the life of the Congolese people," ICJ President Shi Jiuyong ruled. The court added that Uganda had been found guilty of notably "occupation of the Ituri region in the DRC, violations of sovereignty, illegal use of force, violations of international human rights laws and looting and plunder" between August 1997 and June 2003.
[. . .]
Gulu Municipality MP, Norbert Mao, who was a strong critic of the Ugandan army deployment into the DRC, said he was "not surprised" by the ICJ ruling. "We have generally not been good neighbours. In Parliament, we strongly opposed the deployment of our troops into the DRC but they could not listen to us. Now the chicken are coming back to roost," he said.
Jonathan notes in the comments to his original post that a likelihood of flexible repayment plan that won't beggar Uganda depends on the DRC's willingness to reach a flexible solution, inasmuch as the ten billion dollars that the DRC government claims as reparations amounts to 130% of Uganda's GDP. Given the four million dead, this hope might just possibly be overoptimistic.
