The government has responded to human rights abuse concerns raised by the opposition in Parliament. The report dismissed the claims as fictitious and unsubstantiated.
Members of the opposition, who had been boycotting for a month, returned to attend the proceedings. The debate on the statement was postponed until Tuesday when the opposition will respond.
Gen. David Muhoozi, the Minister of State for Internal Affairs, presented the government’s statement, stating that most alleged missing persons were not reported to the police. According to him, filing a missing person’s report with the police is necessary for official recognition. He mentioned cases where disappearances were reported earlier as unwitnessed.
“Most of the alleged disappearances, were never reported to the police. The alleged disappearance of Ddamulira John, Kirya Peter, Wangolo Denis, Ssesazi Isima, Mubiru Hassan, Baguma Joseph alias Ssemujju Joseph and Zzimula Dennis alias Boyi, were all never reported to the Police. It is the law and official practice, that for one to be declared a missing person, a missing person’s report must be filed. This can only be with the Police, which wasn’t done, and which is still being resisted by the people approached,” said Muhoozi.
Muhoozi highlighted inconsistencies in the numbers and testimonies from different sources, including the Uganda Human Rights Commission and the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights. He mentioned that the next of kin of the missing persons declined to cooperate with the police, hindering investigations.
“The next of kin of the reported missing persons, did not cooperate with the police investigators. The Police team had to hold out as members of an NGO, in order to Interview these people. For example: Nabakkoza Florence, the next of kin of Wangolo Dennis alias Shafik, declined to meet the investigators stating that she had got instructions from NUP not to meet any person,” said Muhoozi.
The Minister also accused the opposition of stirring a smear campaign against the government at the expense of sending supporters to seek better refuge abroad.
“It has also been established, that there is a well orchestrated smear campaign of aiding people who seek to go abroad in search of livelihood opportunities, to claim political persecution and /or persecution for belonging to sexual minorities. These false and mendacious claims against government, are unfortunately, sometimes believed by those in the host countries, who are gullible to take these claims as true without verification,” remarked Minister Muhoozi.
The minister refuted accusations of victimizing Muslims, presenting statistics from the Uganda Prisons Service indicating that Muslims make up only 16.4 percent of inmates, with Catholics at 41.3 percent and Protestants at 29.5 percent.
“The statistics from the Uganda Prisons Service as of 30th September 2023, indicate that Muslims constitute only t6.4o/o of the inmates in all Uganda Prisons. They fall behind Catholics who are 43% and Protestants at 29.5% respectively. It is therefore clearly not true that the number of Muslims in prisons is bigger than that of the other denominations. It is also equally not true, that because the Catholics and Protestants are more in the statistics given by Uganda Prisons Service, they are therefore targeted on account of their faith,” said Minister Muhoozi.
Opposition Leader Mathias Mpuuga requested time to make a rejoinder on December 5, emphasizing the need for specific responses. He argued that unlike the State that took 40 days to respond to the demands of its people, the Opposition will return with a response next week.
“It is a 17 page document, authored over a period of 40days, if you divide 17 by 40, it can speak to the number of paragraphs authored each day. We appreciate the attempt to respond to this. It should never take anybody with any power 40 days to respond to the needs of the people, especially when it relates to rights. And it is 40 days plus two and half years. I don’t need forty days, I will be back on Tuesday,” said Mpuuga
Speaker Anita Among stated that Parliament would decide on the report after the opposition’s rejoinder, acknowledging that the report came in late.
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