DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO REQUESTS WORLD COURT TO INDICATE URGENT PROVISIONAL MEASURES IN CASE CONCERNING UGANDA
Press Release
ICJ/599
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO REQUESTS WORLD COURT TO INDICATE URGENT PROVISIONAL MEASURES IN CASE CONCERNING UGANDA
20000620THE HAGUE, 19 June (ICJ) -- Today the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) requested the International Court of Justice to indicate provisional measures as a matter or urgency in the case concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda), which it brought to the Court on 23 June 1999.
In the request that it filed with the Registry, the Democratic Republic of the Congo states that since 5 June last, the resumption of fighting between the armed troops of ... Uganda and another foreign army has caused considerable damage to the [DRC] and to its population while these tactics have been unanimously condemned, in particular by the United Nations Security Council.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo maintains that despite promises and declarations of principle ... Uganda has pursued its policy of aggression, its brutal armed interventions, its harassment and its looting and that this war that ... Uganda set off ... is the third Kisangani war, after those of August 1999 and May 2000. The Democratic Republic of the Congo notes that these facts constitute just one further episode testifying to military and paramilitary intervention and to the occupation that the Republic of Uganda started in August 1998. It further states that each passing day inflicts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its inhabitants grave and irreparable prejudice and that it is urgent that the rights of the Democratic Republic of the Congo be guaranteed.
Accordingly, the Democratic Republic of the Congo requests the Court to indicate the following provisional measures:
(1) the Government of the Republic of Uganda must order its army to withdraw immediately and completely from Kisangani;
(2) the Government of the Republic of Uganda must order its army to cease forthwith any fighting or military activity in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to withdraw immediately and completely from that territory, and must forthwith desist from supplying any direct or indirect support to any State, group, organization, movement or individual engaged or planning to
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engage in military actions in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
(3) the Government of the Republic of Uganda must take all measures in its power to ensure that any units, forces or agents actually or potentially coming under its authority and that enjoy, or might enjoy, its support, together with such organizations or persons as might be under its control, authority or influence, to desist forthwith from committing or encouraging the commission of war crimes or any other violence or unlawful act against all persons in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
(4) the Government of the Republic of Uganda must forthwith discontinue any act having the aim or effect of interrupting, interfering with or hampering actions intended to give the population of the occupied zones the benefit of their fundamental human rights, particularly health and education;
(5) the Government of the Republic of Uganda must immediately cease any unlawful working of the natural resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and any unlawful transfer of assets, equipment or persons to its territory;
(6) the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo must henceforth fully respect the right possessed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity, in addition to the fundamental rights and freedoms possessed by all persons in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo's request for the indication of provisional measures has immediately been transmitted to the Government of Uganda. The subsequent procedure has been reserved.
The case concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda) is currently in the written phase of the proceedings. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is to submit a Memorial by 21 July and Uganda a Counter-Memorial by 21 April 2001.
The full text of the request for the indication of provisional measures of the Democratic Republic of the Congo will shortly be available on the Court's Web site: http://www.icj-cij.org.
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