Women petition Museveni, Besigye to end hostilities
Justice Sebutinde (R), together with other women leaders at a press briefing in Kampala yesterday. Photo by S. Otage.
Kampala- The Women’s Situation Room, a platform for women to prevent election–related violence, has asked the winner of the February 18 presidential race, Mr Yoweri Museveni and the losers, especially Forum for Democratic Change candidate Dr Kizza Besigye, to cease hostilities lest they foment violence.
Ms Julia Sebutinde, a judge at the International Court of Justice and an eminent Ugandan, said the winner should exercise magnanimity and the losers, if aggrieved, should seek redress through the legal procedures.
“Even a stolen election is not an excuse for violence. Before you have exhausted the domestic remedies, we would like to see the losers at all levels exhaust the domestic remedies in the courts of law,” she said.
“…this is where I call on the Judiciary to make sure it speedily resolves the disputes in an impartial and satisfactory manner. Only after that fails, can one say ‘we have done everything we can possibly do to resolve matters peacefully’. In that regard, still, we do not believe that there is justification for violence,” Justice Sebutinde said.
The appeal comes at a time when Dr Besigye, who the State claims is calling for defiance against the election results, has been severally arrested but without any charge.
Yesterday, the Opposition leader was, just like in the past four days, arrested and taken to Nagalama Police Station outside Kampala.
“My appeal to the government and to security agencies is to request them to be magnanimous, be humble and not to use rhetoric that either incites violence or that adds insult to injury to those that feel they have lost,” Justice Sebutinde told journalists in Kampala yesterday.
She said all stakeholders should focus on sustainable peace building, not the “temporary pressure cooker type of peace,” that as she said has been maintained and coerced through the presence of the military on the streets.
However, she advised that “the other stakeholders that feel disgruntled, we want to appeal to them to go down the route of justice to seek legal measures to be able to resolve these disputes.”
And the courts, she said should speedily resolve the cases in an impartial and satisfactory manner, adding that whatever the direction of the judgment there was no justification for violence.
The country has been tense since February 18, when 9.7 million Ugandans turned up to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections.
According to the Electoral Commission, the incumbent, Mr Yoweri Museveni, won the election, having garnered 5.6 million votes whereas Dr Besigye polled 3.2 million.
However, international observers described the poll as lacking acceptable international standards presided over by a partisan electoral commission.
Amama Mbabazi, Venansius Baryamureeba, Abed Bwanika Joseph Mabirizi, Maureen Kyalya, Benon Biraaro as well as spoit votes accounted for the balance.
Dr Besigye has described the poll as a fraud, calling on the youth, who account for more than 80 per cent of the population, to claim their rights.
“…you must assert yourselves and claim your future. There is no other person who will do it for us,” Dr Besigye posted on social networking site Facebook.
