ULS decries State abductions, demands justice
ULS chair. Ms Pheona Wall Nabasa
What you need to know:
- In their February 16 statement signed by the ULS president, Ms Phoena Wall Nabasa, the lawyers said the ongoing State-sponsored abductions cannot be ignored and said the perpetrators should be brought to book.
Lawyers under their professional association of Uganda Law Society (ULS) used the celebrations to mark the 44th anniversary of the murder of Church of Uganda Archbishop Janani Luwum to condemn the current wave of abductions of civilians by security forces in the aftermath of last month’s presidential polls.
In their February 16 statement signed by the ULS president, Ms Phoena Wall Nabasa, the lawyers said the ongoing State-sponsored abductions cannot be ignored and said the perpetrators should be brought to book.
“As we commemorate Archbishop Janani Luwum, the ULS is concerned with the current spate of abductions, kidnappings and forced disappearances of citizens around the country following the 2021 elections. Several citizens are reported abducted and kidnapped. It is alleged that plain-clothed unidentified security operatives first beat up the abductees and take them into numberless tinted vehicles,” the lawyers state.
“These acts of abducting citizens under the auspice of security operatives to curb schemes of criminality are unconstitutional and such incidents should not be ignored,” they added.
Security forces on the spot
The lawyers implored security agencies to ensure all those who have been held in detention beyond 48 hours allowed by the Constitution are released.
They said those who have committed offences and there is evidence should be charged in courts of law.
The ULS also asked security agencies to immediately release the list of all those who were abducted and the areas where they are held.
The ULS also wants security officers who have killed, tortured and abducted citizens to be prosecuted and held individually liable.
Luwum, then the archbishop of Church of Uganda Province, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga-Zaire between 1974 and 1977, was murdered on the orders of then president Idi Amin for being critical of his government regarding human rights abuses and state abduction of citizens.
He was arrested in February 1977 and accused of treason.
He was killed shortly after. The government’s official account said he died in car crash but other accounts say he was murdered on Amin’s orders.
During a commemoration service at St John’s Cathedral in Fort Portal on Tuesday, Rwenzori Bishop Reuben Kisembo likened the current spate of citizen abductions and disappearances to the events that happened at the time leading to Luwum’s murder.
Commemoration of Luwum was marked in various churches across the country on Tuesday.
