NUP party goes to court over missing persons
Members of the Opposition led by the Leader of Opposition, Mr Mathias Mpuuga (right), address the media at Parliament on December 15, 2022. Photo/David Lubowa
What you need to know:
The leader of Opposition says attempts to settle the matter through dialogue have failed
The National Unity Platform (NUP) party has taken the battle to secure the freedom and whereabouts of its missing members to court.
The party yesterday filed a habeas corpus (court order) to produce two of the missing persons either dead or alive. According to NUP, the whereabouts of a total of 25 people are still unknown.
Addressing the media yesterday, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LOP), said the state has continued to persecute innocent people whose only crime is disagreeing with the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party and the government it has formed.
Mr Mpuuga said their attempts to settle the matter through dialogue have failed and, therefore, the only option they are left with is to seek legal redress from the courts of law.
“About our talks on the fate of our comrades, who were abducted and have been missing since 2019, the government side was a no-show for the meeting yesterday (Wednesday). We instructed our attorneys to file for a writ of habeas corpus for the courts to force the government to produce these people dead or alive,” he said.
He added: “We have so far secured orders for John Bosco Kibalama, who was abducted on June 3, 2019, and Muhammad Kanatta, who was abducted on December 23, 2020. We expect the regime to comply with the court orders and [produce] these people or their remains.”
Mr Mpuuga said the state of rule of law in the country has continued to degenerate with state agents getting extremely violent against citizens and abducting them over political disagreements. He said the year has been tough, especially for the dissenting “voices” who continue to face state persecution.
“We all know that the height of this year has been the growing human rights violations that have even made people forget the very difficult economic dire state that this country is going through. I would like to thank the media for always being out to highlight the gross human rights violations that this regime has chosen as path to settling political disagreements,” the LOP said.
“You are all alight to the history of this country and the people had belief that this regime that came to power on the account of the past human rights violations would not do the same. Now we know that actually they never meant what they said more than 30 years ago,” he added.
However, in a separate press conference in Kampala yesterday, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the ICT and National Guidance minister, dismissed claims by the Opposition that Ugandans are being abducted by state agencies.
“The government cannot abduct its citizens. If the state has information that you have been involved in a crime, through its agencies, it can arrest you and the law is very elaborate. But for our friends (the Opposition) continue claiming that the state is abducting people, it is a false claim,” he said.
He added that if it is true that there are missing people, the complainants should report to police for investigations rather than reporting to political parties.
Accountability meeting
For the past week, government officials led by Ms Robinah Nabbanja, the prime minister, and the Opposition led by Mr Mpuuga have been engaging in meetings to discuss the status of the missing persons.
Under the leadership of the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, the two parties had agreed to meet on Wednesday to chart a way forward.
However, Mr Mpuga yesterday said the government team failed to show up and switched off their phones. He said this is the height of dishonesty by the government and with that, the only option is to seek court redress.
“You are aware that the government has failed to respond to so many questions we have raised in the Parliament and outside the Parliament about the disappearance of citizens, the violation of their rights, and the killings on the streets. As you are aware, this week, at the prompting of the Deputy Speaker (Mr Thomas Tayebwa), the prime minister promised to come and make an account by way of comparing what we are questioning and what they know and the last meeting was supposed to take place at the Deputy Speaker’s chambers,” he said.
He added: “None of them [government officials] turned up for that meeting. My team and I were ready for the meeting. We waited, nobody showed up and nobody answered their calls.”
Mr Mpuuga continued: “On our side, we are moving to the next level and we have asked our attorneys to file habeas corpus for the 25 missing persons we logged in Parliament. After we file the habeas corpus, depending on how long this will take, we shall inform the country that officially these people be added on the list of those murdered and buried.”
However, in a telephone interview with Daily Monitor yesterday, the senior press secretary to the Deputy Speaker, Mr Alex Esagala, said Mr Tayebwa was attending an “urgent state assignment and, therefore, could not convene the meeting”.
“However, he (Mr Tayebwa) is committed to ensuring that the meeting is convened as soon as possible such that this matter is solved decisively,” Mr Esagala said.
Last week, Mr Tayebwa informed the House that he had initiated a meeting between the two parties and that the last meeting would take place on Tuesday morning. He also said a report on the status of the missing persons would be presented on the floor of Parliament later that day.
However, the meeting did not take place and was postponed to Wednesday.
Background
Since 2019, several Ugandans have been abducted by state operatives. Some were released after public outcry and international condemnations, while others are still in prison. However, the whereabouts of 25 others are still unknown.
President Museveni had in the past admitted that many of the missing persons were arrested by the Special Forces Command for engaging in criminal activities and that they would be arraigned before the courts.
Additional reporting by Anthony Wesaka & Sylivia Katushabe
