At least 458 Ugandans are missing from their families and their whereabouts remain unknown, according to records provided by the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party.
A copy of a list of missing persons prepared by NUP, contains names of only 243 people.
NUP began registering people who have disappeared, most of them its supporters, last November upon petitions by families following the two-day protests in that month when security forces shot dead 54 civilians.
President Museveni, who acknowledged the killings sparked off by the arrest of the then presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, said in a televised address that most of those who died were “rioters” and terrorists”.
NUP claims that security forces abducted the individuals.
We could not independently verify if all the people on the NUP list are missing, and if so, whether they are in custody of State security agencies.
Securing their release
“We want to push for the release of these people at all costs because they don’t have any case to answer. We have waited for the government to release the official list of the missing people but they are going around corners and we must take an initiative,” Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, the NUP secretary general, said yesterday.
The alleged disappearances of citizens, which Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga last month said mirrored the ‘dark days’ of past regimes, has raised concerns about the state of human security in the country, chipping away what the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party has proclaimed for years as its gain.
President Museveni has since said the people presumed to have disappeared were alive and in custody of security forces, but his directive to have them released or charged in court has not been implement three weeks later.
Lt Col Deo Akiiki, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) deputy spokesperson, last evening said they had handed over the list of all the missing people to the Minister of Internal Affairs (Gen Jeje Odongo) to present it in Parliament as Speaker Rebecca Kadaga demanded last week.
“We don’t have anything to do with that matter anymore. As you have been told, the minister of Internal Affairs is to handle the matter. He will pronounce himself on the floor of Parliament, but I can’t tell when that will happen,” Lt Col Akiiki said.
Additional Info: Daily Monitor
