KAMPALA, Feb. 10 — Uganda late on Wednesday rejected a decision by the International Court of Justice that awarded reparations of up to 325 million U.S. dollars to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The UN court earlier on Wednesday said Uganda should pay for the damage to persons, property, and related natural resources when its troops engaged in armed activities in neighboring Congo in the late 1990s.
The court in December 2005 ruled that Uganda violated the principle of non-intervention in DRC and breached human rights laws through the brutalities committed by its army.
Uganda’s Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka said in a statement that “the decision did not meet the standard of fairness we expected.”
“We challenge and reject the findings of wrongdoing on the part of the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) which was singled out notwithstanding the acknowledgement 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,” the statement added.
Kiwanuka said the court’s decision failed again to understand African matters and made no contribution to current efforts to resolve the security issues that persist.
“This however shall not deter us from continuing to engage the government of the DRC to resolve this matter,” he said.
Uganda is currently back in eastern DRC, jointly fighting with the Congolese troops to wipe out the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an affiliate of the Islamic State in central Africa.
According to humanitarian agencies, at least 7,000 Congolese refugees have so far crossed into Uganda following attacks by ADF rebels in eastern DRC. – XINHUA
