FIAN International Supports Evictees’ Dismissal of Settlement Offer in the NKG Case
FIAN International denounces the government of Uganda's inadequate compensation offer in the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG) Case and calls on President Museveni and the NKG’s CEO Christian Neumann to ensure that the evictees are adequately compensated.
Ahead of a second meeting in the mediation process, the Deputy Attorney General has offered 1,907,285,000 Ugandan Shillings (UGX) -approximately 467,600€.- as financial compensation for the evictees in the NKG Case. On the other hand, the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe has not yet put any offer on the table.
While FIAN welcomes that the Government of Uganda recognizes its duty to compensate the evictees, it criticizes that the amount is inadequate as it covers only half of the amount demanded by the evictees in their plaint.
“The current suggested compensation by the Deputy Attorney General is a slap in the face for the evictees who lost everything during the course of the eviction for the last 18 years”, comments Valentin Hategekimana, Africa Coordinator at FIAN International. “The offered amount of 467,600 € means that each of the plaintiffs would receive only 116 € for the destruction of all their property and 18 years of suffering.”
Originally, in August 2002, the evictees sued the Government of Uganda and NKG, and demanded an amount calculated at 3,814,570,050 UGX. In a first judgment in 2013, the High Court Nakawa sentenced the lawyers of the Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd. to pay 37,085,574,606.3 UGX to the plaintiffs, equivalent to approximately, 9 Million Euro. However, this judgment was set aside.
Since the eviction in 2001, about 4,000 inhabitants of four villages in the Mubende District have been suffering from hunger, malnutrition, and poverty while Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd. produces coffee on their land. The evictees have not received any compensation whatsoever.
FIAN International condemns the Deputy Attorney General offer for compensation and requests the government of Uganda and the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe CEO Christian Neumann to comply with evictees’ demands for an adequate monetary compensation and land to settle.
The negotiation process will continue on October 10, 2019 where the compensation offer will be brought to the attention of the Court mediator.
You can read the full letter of the Attorney General here
Sign the petition to support the evictees here
For more information, please contact:
– Valentin Hategekimana
E-Mail: hategekimana(at)fian.org
