600 abducted NUP members still missing

Opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party have said they will continue to force government to account for the rest of their supporters who were arrested by security forces and have not been seen again by their families.

Daily Monitor has established that only 71 people appear on both the government list of 177, which was tabled in Parliament by the Internal Affairs minister, Gen Jeje Odongo, and on the NUP list of 680 that was also presented in the House last week.

Govt Vs NUP lists
This means that 106 people on the government list were not known to NUP before the minister tabled them in Parliament. It also means that 609 people on the list that NUP tabled in the House remain unaccounted for. 

Gen Odongo told Parliament that government was continuing with the investigations and the list was not final. He said the list could increase if families report more relatives who have disappeared.
Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, the NUP spokesperson, said the struggle to push for unconditional release of those in jail and accountability for others whose whereabouts have not been established still continues.

“They finally yielded to pressure from different stakeholders in and around the world but as that is done, the main objective is not for them to come and tell us that we have these people; we want them released unconditionally,” Mr Ssenyonyi said in an interview last evening.
During the Interparty Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) summit on Friday, President Museveni said he was going to unconditionally release at least 51 people being held by security agencies.

Mr Ssenyonyi yesterday said: “President Museveni has made himself the law and he determines who should be arrested and who should not. He releases the detainees at his leisure. This is unfortunate because the people who have been killed or detained are innocent.”