Gen Lokech issues new orders on arrests
What you need to know:
- Some of the people, who were arrested and later released, told Daily Monitor that they were tortured and their property and money stolen by the arresting officers.
- They said they were kept at the Special Investigations Division at Kireka.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Maj General Paul Lokech, has ordered security teams to stop using vans without number plates while carrying out operations and arrests.
There has been an increase in incidents of use of tinted Toyota Hiace vans with concealed number plates or without number plates in raids of homes and businesses of suspected Opposition supporters around the country.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga yesterday said Maj Gen Lokech directed that such operations must meet arresting procedure standards.
“The Deputy Inspector General of Police came out and directed officers and arresting teams using vehicles with concealed number plates that they should stop it,” Mr Enanga told journalists at the police headquarters in Naguru.
The arrests started after the November 18 and 19 protests last year. The protests erupted in different parts of the country after police arrested presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, in Luuka District.
Similar vans, locally known as drones, are said to have been used in an operation in which Isaac Ssenyange, alias Zebra, former captain of Uganda Bombers, was shot dead at his residence in Kawempe Division, Kampala City, last week.
President Museveni said Ssenyange was killed by security personnel and he apologised for the incident. He has since taken over the investigations.
Mr Enanga said the security teams will continue hunting people who participated in the violent protests, but they have been directed to observe human rights. “The arresting teams must tell the families of the suspects who has been arrested and where they are..,” he said.
At least 1,100 people were arrested in the protests that left 54 people dead. Police say around 600 were taken to court, but they aren’t giving numbers of those still detained.
At the weekend, a boxing coach, Mr Robert Mukasa, alias Soldier Man, who was arrested the day his colleague Ssenyange was killed, was dumped near the Special Investigations Division in Kireka, Wakiso District.
Mr Enanga said a police surgeon examined him and confirmed he had been assaulted by people who arrested him.
He said police had not recorded Mr Mukasa’s statement because his health was still poor.
Mr Mukasa told NTV Uganda on Sunday that armed men beat him accusing him of supporting and training boxers to join the Opposition, allegations he denies.
Mr Enanga said many of those arrested were captured on CCTV cameras participating in protests.
Some of the people, who were arrested and later released, told Daily Monitor that they were tortured and their property and money stolen by the arresting officers. They said they were kept at the Special Investigations Division at Kireka.
Nearly three years ago, the Inspector General of Police, Mr Martins Okoth-Ochola, issued similar orders to police officers to always identify themselves while carrying out arrests. He also stopped any form of torture by security officers carrying out police work.
However, torture and illegal arrests have continued unabated.
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