Torture victims petition UN
Police have on Monday foiled a vibrant protest by a group of youths marching to the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) with a petition to block funding to Uganda.
Eight youths alleging torture on them by security agencies presented their petition to the UNHCR head offices in Kololo, Kampala, challenging the mandate of Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) in fighting the continued state violence on citizens.
The group stormed the offices with placards reading “UN stop funding Uganda Human Rights Commission” one of the placards had pictures of tortured victims with rotting wounds on the legs and backs of several unidentified victims.
In their petition, the torture victims want the UNHCR to block funding to the UHRC because it has remained silent to acts of torture, forced arrests, abductions and other human rights abuses. The group claims victims of torture have been forced to flee to exile because of fear of being reprimanded by security forces for speaking up about it.
” We hope the UN will react positively towards our plight and that of several other Ugandans that have suffered the same fate , we do not want to keep running or living in fear,a at least we have succefully filed our pertion,”Sserunkuma Joseph said.
They say people are being held in incommunicado and beyond the mandatory 48 hours, tortured at ungazzeted places by security operatives and denied access to justice and proper health.
“The UHRC insists tha we are violating the rights of armed services for telling the truthabout what happened to us ,they do not want us to expose the ways this brutality has affected us, So all evidence is here on our bodies , Will you come to our aid and put a stop to your support of the UHRC?”the petition reads in part.
Sserugga Joseph one of the petitioners claims he was knocked down by a police patrol car that fled the scene after. He says to have never received justice despite running to the Human rights commission for help.
“I was knocked by a police patrol car during the Presidential campaigns in 2020, the NUP party President Robert Kyagulanyi was going to launch his Manifesto in Mbarara, the car left after knocking me and I battled with hospital bills to the extent that my leg was amputated. Serruga narrates
Torture victims petition UN
On Thursday last week, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Hon Mathias Mpuuga is led a petition to render Minister of Security, Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi unfit for office.
The opposition legislatiors are hunting for total of 176 MPs signatures disapproving the manner in which security forces are handling civilians under the watch of the Minister.
“We are petitioning Parliament to have the Minister for security censored for his diabolical performance as a Minister. There are people who have been asking us why security?,Why not Defence or Internal Affairs those answers lie with us, We shall decide whether we want to censure the whole bench but we start with the Security Minister.”Mpuuga explained
Mpuuga announced the development on Tuesday. He stated that Opposition would move a motion in Parliament censoring the Security Minister over several discrepancies in security circles under his watch.
“I laid documents in Parliament in his presence over torture, forced disappearances, murders and he did not respond. We have resolved to invoke rule 109 of our Rules of Procedure and Article 118 of the Constitution to censure the Minister of Security,”he stated on Tuesday.
Currently the 11TH Parliament has 529 Legislators, of these NRM has 316 MPs , Independents 73, NUP 61, FDC 28, UPC 10, DP 9, PPP 1
Opposition in Parliament announced a two weeks boycott of plenary over injustices against citizens. The MPs stormed out of the house and sat on the stairs leading up to the parliament entrance chanting: “We want freedom” “Free our people”.
Compiled by Minah Nalule
