Africa, BREAKING NEWS
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As Ugandans prepare for presidential election in February next year, Amnesty International on Monday, December 7, detailing how government in using police to perpetuate atrocities against members of opposition
THE Amnesty International, AI, has accused Ugandan police of arbitrary arrest leaders of political opposition and used excessive force to disperse peaceful political gatherings, thereby hindering the ability of Ugandans to receive information and engage with politicians in the lead-up to elections. A new AI report launched in Kampala on Monday, December 7, has disclosed.
The report was based on 88 interviews including with torture victims, eyewitnesses and senior police officers, as well as analysis of video footage. The AI report entitled: “We come in and disperse them”: Violations of the right to freedom of assembly by the Ugandan police,” detailed a range of human rights violations between July and October 2015.
It disclosed that members of the political opposition, including their presidential candidates, had been repeatedly placed under “preventive arrest” and that police had indiscriminately fired tear gas and rubber bullets at peaceful demonstrators.
“All Ugandans must be free to attend political rallies and engage with candidates, regardless of their political affiliations,” Muthoni Wanyeki, AI’s regional director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said.
“The Ugandan authorities must put an immediate end to the harassment and torture of political opponents and urgently, thoroughly and transparently investigate the use of excessive force against peaceful demonstrators. Anyone found responsible for these violations must be brought to justice.”
With elections due to be held on February 18 2016, in which President Yuweri Museveni will seek a fifth term in office, the arrests of political opposition politicians were reported to have restricted their ability to engage with voters.
As parliamentary campaigns launch on December 7, AI has urged the Ugandan government to publish guidelines on policing assemblies, including the use of tear gas, which meet international standards.
For instance, on July 9, Kizza Besigye and former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, two leading political opposition presidential candidates, were reportedly put under “preventive arrest.” Although they were released on the same day, their arrests prevented them from holding planned consultations with voters.
At the time of their arrests, they were in talks with other political leaders to form an umbrella group known as The Democratic Alliance, TDA, under which they planned to field one joint candidate to face President Museveni at the polls.
On July10, seven members of the TDA youth wing were arrested at the end of a press conference in Kampala called to protest the arrests of Besigye and Mbabazi.
Six days later, Vincent Kaggwa, the spokesman for a group allied to Mbabazi, was arrested in Kampala, capital of Uganda and held incommunicado for four days. The police refused to disclose his whereabouts to his wife for the duration of his detention. When Kaggwa was eventually released, he said police had ordered him to undress and sprayed him with high-pressure cold water from a hose pipe directed at his lower abdomen, causing him intense pain. Thus, AI said it considered that Kaggwa was subjected to enforced disappearance and torture.
Christopher Aine, head of Mbabazi’s security, was arrested in Kampala on September 14. He claimed to have been hit with iron bars and canes while in detention. When AI interviewed him on the day after his release, his body was covered in cuts and bruises and showed evidence of torture.
Similarly, Besigye was stopped by police when he tried to travel to Rukungiri in Western Uganda on October 10 and members of his team were arrested. One woman, Fatuma Zainab, was dragged along the ground by police officers until her clothes started coming off, AI alleged.
It further alleged that the police had frequently used excessive force to break up political gatherings organised by political opposition parties. A video obtained by the AI allegedly showed police hurling tear gas canisters and indiscriminately firing rubber bullets into a peaceful crowd in the town of Soroti.
To justify the abusive activities, the police cited the Public Order Management Act, a controversial law that imposes wide-ranging restrictions on public meetings, including the requirement that organisers should notify the police in advance.
“Peaceful gatherings should be allowed to take place unhindered and the use of force against people attending them cannot be tolerated. Attempts by police to justify their actions are disturbing and unacceptable,” Wanyeki said, adding: “The authorities must take action to rein in the police in the run up to the elections and ensure that their actions conform to both national and international standards.”
— Dec 7, 2015 @ 14:20 GMT
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