{UAH} UGANDA ' S Odious Loans Warning.

Invoking the principle of Odious Debt as grounded in public International law, 

Dr  Kizza Besigye in October 2014 warned China that the  Chinese high interest Loans to Museveni mafia regime network would  not be paid back because they have put Uganda in an unsustainable debt trap. 

Besigye made mention of SGR. Since then, the Chinese have been dragging their feet on funding SGR.

 

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DAILY MONITOR, WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 22 2014

THE CITIZENS OF UGANDA WILL NOT PAY CHINESE ODIOUS DEBTS.

By Kizza Besigye

Uganda has, in recent years, witnessed an unprecedented spate of looting and plunder of public resources, orchestrated by the top echelons of the ruling NRM regime. It's now well known, thanks to the feuding NRM top dogs, that there are mafia networks entrenched within the regime.

Whereas most of the stolen public funds go to feather the nests of the "privileged" individual thieves, there is also a grand strategy of using money for regime survival. The amount of money needed to buy elections and to continuously rent the support of all levels of political, religious, and civil society leaders is staggering and escalates with time. 

Even external support is, largely, rented through lobbyists and public relation firms.

In order to amass the progressively astronomical amounts needed to sustain Mr Museveni in power, big government projects are being used as vehicles for the badly needed slash funds.

The biggest partner of Mr Museveni/NRM in this scheme is, regrettably, the Chinese government and Chinese companies.

China has been quite well regarded in Africa because of its historical support for decolonisation and emancipation of the African people. China played an important role in the anti-apartheid struggle. Presently, China is the biggest trading partner of the African continent, with Africa supplying one third of China's energy needs.

Regrettably however, Chinese trade with, and investment in Africa seems to be taking a wrong turn. 

The Chinese government and corporations, attracted by the opportunity of Africa's big infrastructural projects and increase in oil sources from Africa, seem to have chosen to pattern with corrupt African regimes at the expense of the African people.

Last week, the government-owned New Vision newspaper uncharacteristically published a good opinion piece by journalist Paul Busharizi. 

Busharizi suggested that we should get used to the stories of mega-corruption that invariably accompany the big infrastructure deals. He presented some recent cases of horrifying levels of plunder through infrastructural deals- all involving Chinese companies!

The recently signed contract for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project at a contract sum of $8 billion is a scandal of unheard proportions. The actual cost of the project is estimated at a maximum of $2 billion, leaving a slash fund (loot) of $6 billion.

Karuma dam is estimated to have a built-in slash fund (loot) of about $800 million; Entebbe Highway has an estimated loot of $200 million; and the oil refinery and pipeline projects are already causing jaw-dropping reports. 

All these procurements are negotiated in State House and invariably breeched the established procurement laws and regulations. 

The Chinese and others involved know that the contract prices are very abnormal. All the deals are financed by loans that Ugandans will have to shoulder for many years.

The doctrine of odious (illegitimate) debt in international law has been well established since the early 20th century. 

When a regime contracts a debt that doesn't serve the country's public good, but rather, to strengthen itself; to subvert democratic processes; to buy weapons for repressing the people; to service private interests of regime leaders; as loans with usurious terms that were incurred by a corrupt regime in return for bribes etc., this debt is odious for the people of the entire State. 

This debt does not bind the nation; it is a debt of the regime, a personal debt contracted by the ruler, and consequently it falls with the fall of the regime.

A cardinal condition for determining the lawfulness of State debts is that the debts must be incurred, and the proceeds used, for the needs and in the interests of the State. 

Odious debts, contracted and utilised for purposes, which, to the lenders' knowledge, are contrary to the needs and the interests of the nation, are not binding on the nation.

There are many precedents of governments repudiating odious debts. These include, in earlier times, the denial by the US of the Cuban debts incurred by the Spanish colonial government and Mexico's repudiation of debts incurred by Emperor Maximilian regime.

When Ecuador was chocking with untenable national debt, President Rafael Correa, after his election in 2007, set up a national commission to investigate the debt legitimacy. The commission found that most of the debts were contracted in violation of national laws, US Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and the general principles of international law.

The debts were declared to be odious and repudiated. 

The US successfully argued that Iraq's newly elected government should not be responsible for debts incurred by Saddam Hussein.

The purpose of my writing is to put on record a notice and sound a warning, in good time, to all those extending loans to fund these dirty deals that they stand to lose their money. 

We cannot honour the blatant conspiracy to encumber generations of our people with odious debts. This is a legitimate struggle that Ugandans should prepare themselves to face following the inevitable collapse of the NRM regime.

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