Africa-Press – Uganda. The government yesterday said it has arrested about 1,300 suspects in relation to the November 2020 protests and 2021 General Election violence.None of those picked up, however, is a security operative, although security forces, according to the government’s own admission, shot dead 54 people while suppressing the violent demonstrations in and around Kampala.
The riots were triggered by the arrest of former presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, who stood on the National Unity Platform (NUP) party ticket.Internal Affairs minister Jeje Odongo, in an earlier promise to Parliament, yesterday said the government was only holding 58 of the 423 supporters that NUP claims are missing.
Gen Odongo said it was likely the missing people — who number 365 —are hiding in villages because they know the government is pursuing them on a range of undisclosed offences.NUP said the State security agencies arrested its supporters before, during and after the violent elections, with the whereabouts of hundreds still unknown. Most of them were picked up by masked men and women in military camouflage and whisked away in vans, nicknamed drones for their speed, to unknown destinations. Following pressure from the media, rights activists and lawmakers, Minister Odongo on March 4 shared a list of 177 people who he said were incarcerated at military barracks, with handful remanded to Kitalya Prisons in Wakiso.In a televised address on March 8, President Museveni, revealed that the Special Forces had detained at least 51 of the missing persons. This disclosure raised question over the command responsibility of an operation widely condemned by rights groups and foreign governments. In yesterday’s report to Parliament, Gen Odongo said the government arrested 269 over the November riots and 1,035 in relation to elections, giving a total of 1,304.Initially, NUP in March claimed that 680 of its supporters were missing, but the government admitted it had only 71 of them in custody. MPs objected to the government discloser, resulting in Minister Odongo eventually presenting to Parliament a list of 177 detainees.The confusion over the figures offered by the government and NUP continues a pattern of disparity between the two camps since the first alarm about the abductions and disappearances.
Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, who died early this month, said the brutality mirrored the Idi Amin-era and called for the release of the suspects. NUP says at least 85 of their detained supporters were secretly released.
