Uganda to discuss reparations with Congo
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-23 08:57

A Ugandan official said Thursday the country would negotiate reparations with Congo, after an international court ruled the Ugandan military's invasion of its neighbor was illegal.

Julius Onen, a top civil servant in the foreign affairs ministry, said he expected negotiations to begin in late 2006, after elections in both countries early in the year. He added Congo would make counterclaims.

On Monday, the International Court of Justice held Uganda responsible for killing, torture and cruel treatment of civilians in Congo in the 1990s and called the invasion an "unlawful military intervention."

Onen repeated Uganda's claim that it acted only in self-defense.

"We do not accept that we plundered the resources of the Congo and carried out human rights abuses. We reject all those accusations. Each country has a right to defend its sovereignty," Onen said.

The court also ruled that Congo was obliged to compensate Uganda for the destruction of Uganda's embassy in Kinshasa and for the mistreatment of its diplomats.

Congo said Tuesday it was reassessing an earlier claim against Uganda it has valued at $10 billion following The Hague, Netherlands-based court's ruling.

The international court said it would set the amount of reparations if the two sides cannot agree.

Uganda has said that a main reason for invading Congo in the late 1990s was northeastern Congo was used as a base by Ugandan rebels fighting President Yoweri Museveni's government. Uganda allied itself with Rwanda in what became a six-nation war that lasted for five years.

The war, fueled by hunger for Congo's mineral wealth, left nearly 4 million people dead, mostly through starvation and disease. The worst of the fighting ended in 2002, but Congo has yet to recover.