King Iguru says the British Crown should appear in the same International Criminal Court and answer charges of war crimes atrocities, in case an amicable settlement is not reached with the British Queen in the near future.
This seems to confirm plausible talk by analysts in Uganda that the Bunyoro king may be pushing a legal strategy in order to bring attention to his kingdom’s cause and energize the pressure for a political solution.
You may remember that in its views to the Constitutional Review Commission mid last year, the kingdom called upon the Uganda government to give Bunyoro affirmative action because of the “suffering, deprivation and marginalisation” the people of Bunyoro Kingdom have suffered beginning with punishment by British colonialists.
“Even if there is a possibility of winning the case, it is going to be an economically, socially and politically expensive undertaking for the Omukama. Instead of suing Britain, he should instead seek close cooperation and convince them to fund development programmes in Bunyoro kingdom,” says John Baligira, a history lecturer at Makerere University. But Iguru says the British government has refused to deal directly with his kingdom, instead giving the donor support to the Uganda government.
The former Prime Minister of Britain Gordon Brown promised last year the UK will through its Department of International Development fund Uganda’s land reform which resulted from the 1900 Buganda Agreement that gave huge chunks of large to a few individual (chiefs, royals and colonial officers) leaving the former owners as squatters. Bunyoro kingdom claims the same agreement annexed its seven counties (present day Kibaale, Kiboga, Mubende, Mityana, Kayunga and Nakasongola districts) to Buganda kingdom, and land in these areas was given to a few nobles and the majority are landless todate. Iguru has in the past complained that the government plan to compensate landlords so land can revert to local people have not materialised, leaving his people especially in Kibaale district to continue to live as squatters on their ancestral land.
Bunyoro’s claims for compensation come at a time when internationally Africa and her descendants in other parts of the world are demanding for among other things; apologies and reparations from the advanced west. Bunyoro’s intended case, which is also suffering from lack of a precedent, however still has other places where it can be taken, should Iguru decide to file the suit and the ICC declines hearing it.
Iguru who argues that UN Protocols specify that clauses on crimes against humanity will be applied retrospectively says he even has an opportunity to sue in British, Ugandan and US Courts. The most likely however is the United States.
In the United States of America, using an atypical law, the Alien Tort Act, non-Americans are allowed to sue other non-Americans on US soil if the defendant (in this case Britain) has US assets that can be seized.
The Herero tribe of Namibia filed a US $2 billion court case in Washington in 2003 against the German government accusing it of killing 65,000 Hereros between 1904 and 1907, when Namibia was a German colony. The case is still pending.
Another case has been brought by Kenyan former Mau Mau freedom fighters, who claim they were tortured by the British, also in the 1950s. Something is yet to come of the suit.
Elsewhere in Europe and America, banks, governments and others are owning up to their Nazi past, and are paying reparations or making restitution to the Jewish people. Japan recently apologised for its brutal colonial rule in Korea and paid reparations to the “comfort women” (sex slaves) used by the Japanese troops in World War II.
Former PM of Britain, Gordon Brown
“If the red Indians are being compensated by Canada and USA; the aboriginals in Australia are being compensated, why not us?” asks Yolamu Nsamba, king Iguru’s principle private secretary.
He argues that if Germany can pay DM90bn (around US$38bn or 78trillion Uganda shillings) to Israel in voluntary reparations in 50 years for the gas chambers in Auschwitz alone, and is still paying billions more to the Jewish people for the other crimes committed against the Jews and other slave labourers, it is only fair that the Banyoro get a just recompense from Britain who he accuses of having brutally killed and starved more than 2million people in the British conquering war with Bunyor-Kitara kingdom.
“We are not contesting sovereignty here. We acknowledge we lost the war. But these British colonial officers were killing civilians, destroying people’s crops and stealing people’s animals. As a result, there is a lot malnutrition, syphilis which was intentionally injected to our people, Bunyoro has the highest infant mortality rate south of the Sahara. People here are still malnourished and we lost a whole generation of people who should have grown up strong and active to develop our area. They executed a policy to depopulate Bunyoro and left the kingdom as a colonial museum,” says Nsamba.
Bunyoro Kingdom’s compensation demands from Britain
“Great Britain has an international legal obligation to pay compensation to the Omukama and the royal household of Bunyoro-Kitara as it is provided for in the Protocol 1 under Article 91 for the following goods and assets requisitioned, pillaged and destroyed by British troops. The computation covers the period since effective hostilities ended in 1899,” reads the demand note from the western Uganda kingdom.
1. 30,000 head of cattle (Enkongi-royal breed) handed down the generations plus 15% interest for 101 years @ 5454.00 pounds 163,620,000.00 pounds
2. Numerous numbers of goats and sheep estimated to number 50,000 plus 15% simple interest for 101 years @ 323.00 pounds 16,150,000.00 pounds
3. Appropriated income of Kibiro salt mine: 43,707,290kgs plus simple interest for 101 years @ 3.03 pounds 132,433,088.00 pounds
4. 16,329kgs of salt pillaged at Kibiro plus simple interest for 101 years @ 3.03 pounds 49,476.87 pounds
5. 270,000kgs of dry foodstuffs pillaged at Kibiro from the Omukama Cwa II Kabalega and family food stores @ 11.36 pounds 3,067,875.00
6. Ivory pillaged, sold and income appropriated worth 27,491.00 pounds during the period 1894 to 1899 443,979.00 pounds
7. 2000 rupees worth cloth pillaged plus 15% simple interest per annum for 101 years 32,300.00 pounds
8. A fleet of canoes including the Omukama’s badge with 15% simple interest for 101 years 58,140.00 pounds
9. 25,000 acres of crops including banana plantations cut down and destroyed @180.00 plus 15% interest for 101 years 101,200,000.00 pounds
10. Losses arising out of illegal detention of Cwa II Kabalega for 24 years and loses of opportunities to transact family business estimated at 150,000,000.00 pounds plus 15% profit for 101 years 2,442,000,000.00 pounds
11. Losses arising out of illegal detention of Queen mother Nyamutahingurwa, mother of Cwa II Kabalega and princess Kalyota (Ruguga) leading to loss of opportunities to manage family property estimated at 12,000,000.00 plus 15% interest for 101 years 183,000,000.00 pounds
12. 30% towards costs of this study and consultants services 860, 116,800.00 pounds
TOTAL 3,727,173,160.00 pounds
Compiled by Ultimate Media
Protocol I provisions that Iguru is basing on
Article 1 General principles and scope of application
Clauses
2. In cases not covered by this protocol or by other international agreements, civilians and combatants remain under the protection and authority of the principles of international law derived from established custom, from the principles of humanity and from the dictates of public conscience.
4.The situations referred to include armed conflicts in which people are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration on Principles of International law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among states in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
Article 3 –Beginning and end of application
Without prejudice to the provisions, which are, applicable at all times:
a) The Conventions and this Protocol shall apply from the beginning of any situation referred to in article 1 of this Protocol
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