Writes Leo Odera Omolo
A group of Ugandans living in South Africa have petitioned their host country’s President Jacob Zuma, urging him to, among many other things, end South Africa’s arms exports to Uganda.
The message is contained in the latest news posted to the website by the Uganda Correspondent website quoting its sources in South Africa
In the memorandum dated June 8, 2012, which Uganda Correspondent has seen, the signatories William Kyazze and Timothy Mugerwa, who represent an organisation called ‘Human Rights Voice International’ said they wanted to bring what they called “the brutality of the Ugandan regime” to the attention of the South African government and urge it to “reconsider” its relations with President Yoweri Museveni.
The memorandum reads: “…The prevailing human rights abuses by the government of Uganda have worsened since the 11th April 2011, when Ugandans embarked on the walk-to-work campaign to express their demands for respect of human rights.
The response by Uganda government has been that of systematic and consistent brutality on unarmed vulnerable citizens, with the help of some of the arms and armoured vehicles purchased from South Africa.
Arbitrary arrests, torture and death of opposition supporters, harassment of opposition leaders and intimidation of the general population by the police and military forces are daily occurrences. Media groups, both the local and international, have been at the receiving end too.
All this state brutality using the police and military forces has been widely covered by both the Ugandan and international media as well as many human rights organisations. This was also brought to your attention in a petition handed to your office in May last year by the Uganda Civil Alliance Network (UCAN).
Furthermore, this brutality has had the consequence of increased influx of Ugandan refugees into South Africa, thereby having a ripple effect on this country’s residents, politically, socially and economically. Sometimes the Department of Home Affairs officials have tended to misread the Ugandan situation when dealing with Ugandan asylum seekers but the reality is that the situation in the country is forcing many Ugandans to flee their country.
Though the country holds elections, Ugandans have lost faith in them under the current arrangement as they are mainly an exercise to put a face to the country’s dictatorship and do not express the true will of the people as has been shown by instability following the previous elections.”
The memorandum, issued to coincide with President Museveni’s visit to South Africa, then ends with a request to President Jacob Zuma to take action on a number of issues and says:
“…Your Excellency, as the leader of South Africa, a modern democratic and human rights respecting country, whose democratic principles are underpinned by Human Dignity, Equality and Freedom, we Ugandans wish to emulate these principles in our country, Uganda.
3.1. Your Excellency, we would appreciate if you would address the issue of human rights abuses carried out by the Uganda police and military forces, with President Museveni.
3.2. We request the South African government through you to urgently reconsider/revise its foreign policy and approach when dealing with the government.
3.3. We request that you put a stop to the sale of arms from this country to Uganda because of the misery these arms visit on ordinary Ugandans through the havoc they wreck.
3.4. We request that you review the training of the current Ugandan military personnel in this country.
3.5. We request that under the prevailing situation in Uganda, Ugandan political asylum seekers should be dealt with in relation to the existing brutal political situation in the country.”
END.