Under his regime there were 2 to 15 million deaths among the Congolese people.[28][29][30][31] Deliberate killings, abusive punishments, and general exploitation were major causes of the deaths. As in the colonization of the Americas, new diseases hitherto unknown in the region, also led to a considerable number of deaths. Because the main motive for the killings was financial gain, it has been debated whether the term genocide describes these atrocities well; however, Robert Weisbord wrote in the Journal of Genocide Research in 2003 that attempting to eliminate a portion of the population is enough to qualify as genocide under the UN convention.[31] Reports of the atrocities led to a major international scandal in the early 20th century, and Leopold was ultimately forced in 1908 by the Belgian government to relinquish control of the colony to the civil administration.[32][33]