KAMPALA, Uganda
United Nations human rights experts early this week urged Uganda to immediately stop the brutal crackdown on the political opposition which began in the lead-up to January's general elections and intensified after the disputed vote.
"We are particularly alarmed by the reports of
widespread and continued repression against opposition leaders and their
supporters," the experts said.
"More than 50 people have been killed as a result of
the brutal policing methods, including the use of live ammunition fired without
warning, and at least 20 others have lost their lives in incidents linked to
the electoral context."
Veteran ruler Yoweri Museveni was declared winner of the
election in which the campaigning period was dominated by episodes of violence
and a bloody crackdown on opposition rallies.
They urged Kampala to investigate and prosecute all human
rights violations, including allegations of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary
arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, torture and ill treatment.
Human rights organizations have documented dozens of
missing people in the East African country.
Bobi Wine’s party, the National Unity Platform (NUP) in
March released a list of 243 people -mostly activists - it said had been
abducted by security forces.
Some of those who were released said they were tortured and
later dumped in isolated areas in the night.
In a televised address on February 13, President Museveni
denied that security forces were holding the missing persons but later appeared
to contradict himself when he said that the Special Forces Command (SFC) – the
presidential protection force had 53 people in its custody.
In a meeting with the envoys of China, the US, UK, France,
and Russia in Kampala on Tuesday, Uganda’s foreign minister Sam Kuteesa denied
that the security forces were carrying out abductions.
According to a press release issued by the ministry,
Kuteesa told the diplomats that the November 18, 2020 violence in which dozens
of people protesting the arrest of Bobi Wine were gunned down were ‘violent
riots’ which ‘regrettably led to loss of life’.
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