Uganda sued at EA court over protests clampdown

Arusha/Kampala

Lawyers from the East African region have sued the Uganda government, accusing its security agencies of human rights violations and breach of the Constitution during the recent walk-to-work demonstrations.

The East Africa Law Society sued the Ugandan authorities at the East African Court of Justice in Arusha, Tanzania, in a case filed yesterday evening by the Vice President of the regional law body, Mr Aggrey Mwamu.
The suit was presented to the Office of the EACJ Registrar in Arusha shortly before 5pm yesterday after all paperwork formalities were completed.

The Ugandan government is accused of gross violations of human rights of its people who were engaged in walk-to-work protests that swept the country starting April this year, leading to deaths of at least 10 individuals, several injuries and destruction of property.

EALS alleges that Ugandan security forces were behind arbitrary arrests and killing of innocent people during the chaos “in violation of the very basic tenets of human rights”, which guarantees them freedom of speech and movement, among others.

Briefing the media before the case was formally filed at the court on Moshi Road, Mr Mwamu said the regional law society was empowered to raise its voice over matters pertaining to human rights violations.

Empowered agency
“The Memorandum of Articles empowers the society to intervene in matters pertaining to human rights violations and arrest the situation before it goes out of hand,” he told reporters at the court’s premises. Also sued was the East African Community (EAC), whose secretary general was accused of remaining “quiet” despite the deteriorating situation in Uganda.

Mr Mwamu argued that the arbitrary arrests, beatings of people and the killings that followed were against the EAC Treaty articles and clauses on good governance and adherence to human rights as agreed upon by all the five partner states. “As the atrocities were committed in Uganda, neither the EAC secretary general nor any of the five members of the Community raised concern. They all kept quiet...this is against the EAC Treaty,” he said.

The suit also included a retention case against the Kenyan government for what EALS described as unconstitutional extradition of Kenyan citizens to Uganda to face charges related to the terrorist activities in Kampala in July 2010.

The EALS officials charged that the Kenyans were handed over to the Ugandan authorities without any legal procedures taken. These included the extradition formalities that are required to transfer a suspect to another country.

“The Kenyan citizens were handed over in a casual manner. This was also inconsistent with the Kenya Constitution. To make matters worse, the EAC boss did nothing to remind the partner states on the anomaly,” he said.
The third case within the suit was on the glaring contradictions between the EAC Common Market Protocol and the Treaty that established EAC “which we feel must be sufficiently addressed before things get out of hand”.

Summons for govt
Officials of EACJ said after the case has been filed, summons would be served to the respective governments within 14 days. Thereafter, the court would convene a pre-trial conference to determine when the cases are to be heard.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1172866/-/c0wu0nz/-/index.html

Great Lakes region foreshadow shocking events

The late Col. Muzoora. Daily Monitor photo.

In July 2006 in my then column in the Daily Monitor newspaper, I started writing about having met a "Seer" a few weeks earlier, who among many other fascinating things, prophesied that there was to come a major clash, war, between Uganda and Rwanda.

The Seer also mentioned the assassination of the two presidents of Rwanda and Uganda, Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni respectively.
These things forecast by the Seer seemed strange to me and many reading about them at the time. But with the passage of time, no longer seem that implausible

What is going on between Rwanda and Uganda?Amid the news and discussion of a new cabinet in Uganda over the last week, the death of the fugitive former UPDF officer Col. Edison Muzoora, also made its way into the news cycle.
The body of Muzoora, 53, was dumped at his country home in Bushenyi district. Muzoora deserted the army in 2003 and, along with FDC President Col. Kiiza Besigye, Col. Samson Mande, Col. Anthony Kyakabale, the late James Opoka and others, was accused by the Uganda government of being behind a rebel group called the People's Redemption Army or PRA.

How he got intercepted by Ugandan intelligence is not clear, but it would seem obvious that for a pickup to deliver his body, wrapped in clean white bed sheets --- and the complete refusal by the army and government to be present in any official capacity at his burial --- suggests that this must have been some kind of military or security force that brought his body to his home.
The decision to dump Muzoora's body at his home in Bushenyi was intended more to strike a psychological blow than anything else.

According to Uganda Record sources, Muzoora was on his way from Rwanda on a mission backed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Muzoora was supposed to help set up an operational base in Uganda to coordinate a forthcoming, deadly Rwandan plot against Museveni that would either be focused on assassinating Museveni or staging a coup against him.
Also, according to these sources, weapons have in the last several weeks been flowing into Uganda from Rwanda for this purpose.

The Uganda Record mentioned just before the election that President Kagame had warned the British and American governments to tell Museveni to back off his plan to sponsor a second invasion of Rwanda.

If London and Washington did not do this, the sources said, he Kagame would take matters into his own hands.

The Uganda Record reported in January of reports by the Rwandan Umuvugizi newspaper about a Rwandan plot to assassinate Museveni during one of his campaign rallies, using a bomb.

The Uganda Record also got confirmation that a July 2010 article in the Red Pepper tabloid about an assassination attempt on First Lady Janet Museveni was true and, according to intelligence sources within PGB, had been plotted by Rwanda.

The reason Kagame is so determined to launch a preemptive strike on Museveni is because of the other story brewing in the Great Lakes region --- the reported or rumoured plan by Museveni to sponsor a cluster of exiled Tutsis to stage a second invasion of Rwanda, similar to that which Museveni funded in October 1990.
Exiled Tutsi Rwandans who have been falling out with Kagame over the last several years and fleeing the country are said to be busy raising money for that anticipated war.

A Tutsi exile, Theogene Rudasingwa, is coordinating this fundraising effort and the several reported visits to Uganda since December 2010 by Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa and Col. Patrick Karegeya, who met Museveni, are part of the plot.

In short, there is a quite serious confrontation taking shape and building up between Museveni and Kagame, with each sure that the other is plotting to overthrow the other's regime and in the case of Uganda, that would include assassinating Museveni.

The moves underway, unfolding behind the scenes, are the two men's way of working on preemptive strikes.
This is the thinking behind the Museveni regime's conviction that the opposition "Walk to Work" protests are but a cover for the covert activities by Kagame.
It is also the thinking behind the charges by the former Information and Internal Affairs ministers Kabakumba Matsiko and Kirunda Kivejinja, and State House officials like Kintu Nyago, that the Ugandan opposition is planning to overthrow Museveni.

What is not clear is if Museveni believes that the opposition is working in concert with Kagame for this purpose or that Kagame, seeing the success and surprisingly persistent general protest environment in Uganda, has decided to quickly but independently take advantage of it.

What is now clear is that the conditions of 1981 to 1985 in Uganda --- roadblocks, large-scale purging of opposition protesters and assaults on the media --- have now settled over Uganda.
The factors that will shape the remainder of 2011 will be the conviction by both Kagame and Museveni that if they do not act swiftly, the other --- and they know each other too well to be complacent about it --- will set in motion a sequence of events that will lead to their overthrow.
This perception, irrespective of the truth or not of it, is the operative force about to set the Great Lakes region of Central Africa alight.

http://www.ugandarecord.co.ug/index.php?issue=80&article=949&seo=Col.%20Muzoora's%20death%20and%20the%20coming%20Rwanda-Uganda%20inferno

Who Killed Col Edsion Muzoora?

Exiled Col. EDSON MUZOORA has been killed and his body dumped at his home in Bushenyi by unknown people.

By Arinaitwe Rugyendo.

The exiled  renegade  UPDF officer col Edison muzoora is dead.
Red Pepper online has been exclusively  told by his relatives that his body was found last night dumped out side his country home in Bushenyi district at one o’clock this morning.  His young brother  identified as Medard has told red pepper online that unknown people  drove to his home at night in a place called Nyanga, kyabugyinbi Sub county in Bushenyi district and started hooting repeatedly, when people woke to see what was happening a mysterious car drove off into the darkness.

Medard adds that when people  gathered to find out what was going on, one of the relatives identified a body wrapped in a white bed sheet. The body was clean and it looked healthy. It was clad in a casual t-shirt and trouser.The body looked like it was treated and not smelling . Medard told Red Pepper this morning  that they informed police at bushenyi as well as UPDF 2nd division in Mbarara. The division IO rushed to Bushenyi and took the Body  to Mbarara Referral  Hospital where a postmortem is going on . Apparently the Body has a cut on the left side of the Ribs and in the  foot. “we are very shocked, we don’t know where he was coming from, nobody was able to identify the car”  Said Medard. .

Col. Muzoora has been the third in command of the defunct PRA rebel group which has been operating in DRC fighting the Ugandan govt! In 2003, he escaped near capture by UPDF soldiers in DRC and went on to live in South Africa! The remnants of the PRA are said to have been ‘adopted’ by the ADF! The PRA structure has colonels Samson Mande and Anthony Kyakabale who have all declared war on Uganda at one time or another between 2001 and 2010.

http://redpepper.co.ug/welcome/?p=9801