After a long standing court case, the judges at the International Court of Justice at Hague ordered Uganda to pay $325 million to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for their role played in the conflict within the eastern DRC that led to the death of up to 15000 people and looting of the country’s natural resources such as gold, diamonds and timber.
Expressing disappointment, Olive said that the burden of repaying the outrageous sum will be levied on the taxpayer who she said didn't even benefit from any of the loot taken from DRC.
“Obviously the taxpayer is going to pay because that is where the government gets its money,” she said.
Fatboy, agreeing with her, said “It's very unfair, because for the most part we were opposed to these incursions into the DRC since it was during that time when it was reported that some people in leadership were taking advantage of the situation. Some people were plundering, looting and obtaining timber, gold and all that stuff.”
“And none of that was used to enrich Ugandans. It was used to enrich other people, those that were in DRC and plundered the resources,” Olive added.
DRC dragged Uganda to the International Court of Justice in 1999 accusing Uganda of armed aggression on its people and illicit acts of plundering its resources including timber, diamonds and gold. The country had demanded compensation amounting to $11 billion but the judges dismissed some of the claims, thus reducing the amount further.
The ICJ in its verdict on 9 January, 2022 ruled that Uganda pays annual installments amounting to $65 million starting September 2022 to 2026 to DR Congo for the damages .
The sum includes $225 million for the armed aggression against the DR Congo civilians, $40 million for the properties destroyed and $60 million for the plundered resources.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, Sarah and Lesham every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.