Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Isengule resident on the shoreline of Lake Tanganyika in Katavi Region’s Tanganyika district, 22-year old Fatuma Issa, has delivered quadruplets, one of them a girl.}

The new babies are believed to be the first quadruplets delivered at Mpanda Municipal Hospital. Nursing-in-Charge at the municipal health facility, Mr Alexander Kasagula said Ms Issa delivered the four children at the health facility over the weekend, saying the conditions of both new born and their mother who gave birth through a normal method are stable.

“The girl came first, weighing 1,088 grams, the second born weighed 1.5 kilogrammes, the third and fourth weighed 1.8 and 1.7 kilogrammes, respectively,” said Mr Kasagula. Three of the newly born babies are boys and one girl, he said: “It is an extraordinary thing to witness the proud mum and her four new babies.

They are still hospitalised for close medical watch.” Ms Issa said she was proud to deliver four children at once, saying the couple, with her husband, 25-year old Agustino Andrew have five children from three deliveries.

“My husband and I have five children now, during my first delivery I gave birth to a baby who is alive but in my second delivery I gave birth to twins, one died shortly after delivery and another died three months later,” she said.

She thanked God that in her third delivery, she gave birth to four babies without any maternal complications.

“I thank God and I’m proud to have all these new babies,” she said. Medical in Charge at the health facility, Dr Jaffar Kitambwa said the mother and her four babies have been admitted to the facility for close medical observation and treatment.

Source:Daily News

{A transgender candidate born in Burundi is standing as a candidate in the Dutch general elections.}

Olave Basabose fled Burundi as a young child but her family and friends are still there.

She says she still has deep and strong ties with Burundi and has kept in touch with LGBT activists there, she told a Burundian online publication in an interview.

She said:

The situation in Burundi fills me with anger, sometimes, pain, often, and hope, always. The emergence of a young, politically conscious and ethnically united movement for progress, democracy and development gives me hope.

I think that Burundi has real hopes, as long as we think in a unified way, as long as we are in solidarity, as long as we fight for democracy, as long as we aim for progress, as long as we hope together.

Olave trained as a corporate lawyer in the Netherlands and has been working there to protect the rights of sexual minorities.

She says her experience as a black transgender person in the Netherlands has been problematic and is part of the reason why political activism has become important to her.

She is standing for the newly formed Artikel 1 party, which was set up to defend equality, emancipation and social justice for all residents of the Netherlands.

Source:The Star

{The government spokesman in the Democratic Republic of Congo has criticized the United Nations after two U.N. officials were kidnapped in the center of the country Sunday. The spokesman says his government had not been informed of their movements.
}

Michael Sharp, an American, and Zahida Katalin, a Swedish citizen, as well as the four Congolese nationals accompanying them, were kidnapped in the province of Kasai Central in central DRC.

The U.N. mission in the DRC, known as MONUSCO, and the Congolese security forces have been looking for the six since being informed of their abduction, but so far without success.

DRC’s communications minister, Lambert Mende, told VOA on Wednesday that the government did not know Sharp and Katalin were in the country, which is not acceptable. Mende says U.N. officials are free to carry out their inquiries and humanitarian work, but that it is necessary to inform authorities of their presence.

The Kasai region, where the kidnapping took place, has been the scene of an escalating conflict between the DRC’s security forces and militiamen since August of last year when the Congolese military killed a customary chief, known as Kamwina Nsapu. A militia of his followers is now active in the three provinces of Kasai and in Lomami Province. More than 400 people have been killed and 200,000 displaced by the violence, according to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The DRC’s interior minister told Jeune Afrique, a French magazine, that members of that militia had carried out the attack.

Mende told VOA that if local authorities had been informed of the officials’ presence, they could have provided an escort or warned the U.N. group that the area is an operational zone where militants are active.

Sharp and Katalin are members of the U.N.’s Group of Experts on the DRC, which carries out research into conflict in the country and reports directly to the Security Council. The U.N. has more than 19,000 peacekeeping troops in the DRC, but most are deployed in the east rather than the country’s center.

Source:Voice of America

{Calm has returned at Maseno School after a day-long unrest by students that paralysed learning at the institution on Wednesday.}

The students went on rampage protesting the interdiction of their Principal Paul Otula over bullying claims at the institution.

Speaking to Nation.co.ke, Kisumu County Education Director Sabina Aroni said students had resumed learning.

“I received a report in the morning that the students went for morning preps. That is a good indication. I am visiting the school to further check the state of affairs,” said Ms Aronii.

Mr Otula was suspended for 30 days by the Teachers’ Service Commission following claims that a Form One student was sodomised by senior students.

He is expected face a disciplinary committee to defend himself against accusations of negligence, allowing bullying and molestation of the student.

Homa Bay High School Principal Andrew Buop was posted in Mr Otula’s place.

This caused unrest among the students who demanded that Mr Otula be reinstated.

It is however unclear whether the new principal has reported to the institution as both Ms Aroni and Kisumu County TSC Director Ado Mohammed chose to steer off the matter.

Mr Mohammed said due to its seriousness, the matter was being handled from the headquarters.

“It is best to reach the communications desk at the TSC headquarters for details,” he said.

The issue is deemed emotive since both parents and students want Mr Otula reinstated.

The Maseno School Parents Association chairperson James Obondi accused the ministry of education and the media of creating unnecessary stigma on their sons regarding the sodomy allegations.

“We find the allegations on sodomy in the school as baseless, unjustifiable and in the least, malicious and aimed at tainting the name of the institution and Mr Otula,” said Obondi.

Source:Daily Nation

{The US government yesterday backed a call by Human Rights Watch for an international investigation into last November’s killings in Kasese which left more than 100 people dead. }

The renewed calls for an independent inquiry into the bloodbath, almost immediately, drew a sharp response and another flat refusal by the government to determine if Uganda’s armed forces committed mass murder in Kasese.

Released yesterday, HRW said in a second report on the killings committed by both the army and police, especially during the raid on the Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu’s palace, “warrant an independent, impartial fact-finding mission with international expertise”.

“If given unfettered access to witnesses and forensic evidence”, HRW says “independent experts with a fact-finding mission could determine if the massacre on November 27 should be characterised as a “crime against humanity”.

The international NGO was soon joined by the US Embassy which released a statement saying it “takes note” of HRW’s report and is “deeply troubled” by the “disproportionate use of force by security officials” especially the reports that “no effort to remove unarmed people from the compound was done which may have contributed to the death of numerous children”.

“As noted, previously, the embassy urges government to conduct or permit a fair and independent investigation into this incident in the interest of upholding the rule of law. The Ugandan people deserve a full and factual accounting of the events in Kasese, which government has not yet allowed,” the embassy statement, a copy of which was posted on Ambassador Deborah Malac’s twitter handle, said.

Opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye, recently, made a similar call to the European Union (EU) during a closed-door meeting with Mr Koen Vervaeke, the European External Action Service (EEAS) managing director for Africa.

The rights body has also called for the suspension of army and police officials “believed to be most responsible for the killings and other abuses committed during the November violence”.

“Police spokespeople reported the death toll over the two days as 87, including 16 police. Human Rights Watch found the actual number to be much higher – at least 55 people, including at least 14 police, killed on November 26, and more than 100, including at least 15 children, during the attack on the palace compound on November 27.”

But the military spokesman yesterday dismissed the call for an independent investigation into a matter before court as “untenable for now because it is at odds with the sub judice rule.”

Brig. Richard Karemire said Uganda “does not lack independent investigative capability” in case such need arises. Gen. Karemire was addressing journalists at the Government Media Centre, shortly after the report became public.

Without independent investigations, HRW said, the army’s account that the people killed were armed fighters “raises more questions than answers, particularly regarding the actual death toll and why there was no effort to remove unarmed people and children from the compound.”

Ms Maria Burnett, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch said the Kasese killings “which killed more people than any single event since the height of the war in Northern Uganda over a decade ago, should not be swept under the carpet.” Ms Burnett said the people of Kasese, some still searching “for their family members, including children”, “deserve answers and justice for these gruesome killings”.

At least 95 people in six sub-counties of Kasese district, including many families of the people killed, were reported to have been interviewed by HRW which also reviewed video and photographs of the events in compiling the report.

Security forces who took part in the operation in Kasese dismissed any notion of children having been killed during the raid. But the rights body reported that it spoke to 14 families missing 15 children between ages 3 and 14 who were last seen in the palace compound on November 27.

“Human Rights Watch found evidence, including accounts by confidential sources and medical personnel who witnessed the events, that security officials had misrepresented the number of people killed and eliminated evidence of the children’s deaths.”

The call by both the NGO and US government could likely pile more pressure on Kampala in light of earlier attempts by members of the affected community and other human rights defenders in the country to demand for accountability and justice for the victims with international help.

Last year, a group of mainly opposition MPs from Kasese petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC), asking for an investigation into possible atrocities committed by both the army and police. The ICC later issued a statement acknowledging receipt of their petition and promised to reply.

President Museveni, Maj. Gen Peter Elwelu (the officer who commanded the army units during the palace attack) and Assistant Inspector General of Police Asuman Mugenyi were singled out in the December 9, 2016 petition which government dismissed as “political posturing”. The MPs sought to move the office of the ICC chief prosecutor to commence investigations into the raid on King Charles Mumbere’s palace among other things.

Quoting the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials which require law enforcement officials, including military units, to apply nonviolent means before resorting to force among other requirements, HRW called for the suspension of the officers who commanded the operation pending investigations.

“The government should promptly investigate, prosecute, and punish those responsible in accordance with international standards. The government should protect witnesses and compensate the families of victims.”

The rights body, particularly, singled out Maj. Gen. Elwelu who was the face of the joint operation. Gen Elwelu was recently promoted and appointed UPDF’s commander Land Forces. At the time of the killings he was a brigadier.

“He should be removed from command pending a full investigation, and should not participate in any internationally-supported training, conferences or joint exercises until investigations conclude,” Human Rights Watch said.

Gen Karemire, however, said the demand to suspend some commanders from their duties “is uncalled for and unacceptable”.

This report comes after HRW’s 2016 report that was released in January 2017 in which the security forces were accused of carrying out at least 13 extra-judicial killings of people in the Rwenzori region shortly after the February 18, 2016 general elections. In that wider report, the NGO implored Uganda’s international partners to “maintain a strong demand for accountability, including support for an independent and impartial investigation with international experts”.

More than 160 people, including the Rwenzuru King, Charles Wesley Mumbere, have been dragged to court on charges including terrorism, aggravated robbery and murder since the incident.

Source:Daily Nation

{A Swedish citizen is among two UN experts missing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.}

“Two members of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo are reported missing in that country,” the UN said on Monday, adding that it is doing “everything possible” to locate them.

The Swede as well as an American UN worker and four Congolese nationals accompanying them were kidnapped on Sunday in the province of Kasaï-Central, according to the DRC government.

Congolese security forces and the UN’s MONUSCO mission in the DRC spent Monday using helicopters to look for the missing people, but were unable to do so, and resumed the search on Tuesday.

“We’re using all available resources. The search is still ongoing, they are still missing. We still don’t have any proof that they have been kidnapped or killed. We’re looking in the area and hope to find them alive,” MONUSCO communications head Charles Bambara told Swedish news agency TT.

Sweden’s Foreign Ministry (UD) said on Tuesday morning that there was nothing new to report on the missing Swede.

“There’s no new information from what was said yesterday. There is a Swede being looked for in Congo. But we won’t go into details about how the search is going,” UD press spokesperson Patric Nilsson told The Local.

UD has since 2006 advised against travelling to the DRC, where there is a conflict between security forces and militias.

Source:The Local

{The fate of the UPDF soldier who lost his manhood under torture by his superiors in Somalia was sealed last Friday after a field military court in Mogadishu sentenced him to 20 years in prison.}

Corporal Majid Sebyara is now impotent.
He was subsequently flown back to Uganda at the weekend, briefly held at Makindye Military Barracks before he was deposited at Luzira prison.

If he does not appeal or the sentence is upheld by the Appellate Court, the 33-year-old father of three will spend the next 20 years in jail and will be dismissed from the army with disgrace. Dismissal with disgrace means he will not receive anything for his service in the army be it gratuity, pension or any other entitlement provided for under the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) terms and conditions of service.

Cpl Sebyara’s plight was first published by Daily Monitor last December after the High Court halted his trial by the military tribunal and ordered his release. Two weeks ago, Daily Monitor reported that the army sneaked him back to Somalia for trial by a military tribunal without his lawyers’ knowledge.

His lawyer, Mr Ivan Mugabi, confirmed yesterday Cpl Sebyara’s extradition to Somalia and the resultant conviction. He said the incident had shocked the human rights legal fraternity.

Confirmation
“He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment last Friday and returned here on Saturday. I met him at Makindye before he was taken to Luzira prison. I am shocked and appalled by the conduct of some of the elements of UPDF and the way this illegality was executed. I walked to court to defend my client only to be informed he had been flown to Somalia. The next I heard from him is this sad news. We shall do all we can to reverse this abuse of human rights,” counsel Mugabi said.

Last Thursday when Cpl Sebyara appeared before the General Court Martial at Makindye in Kampala, he informed the court chairman, Lt Gen Andre Guti, that he could not take part in the trial without his lawyers. The court offered him an army lawyer whom he rejected.

Military sources told Daily Monitor that the army’s legal officer, a major, too declined to represent Cpl Sebyara, saying she could not impose herself on a client.

The court, however, proceeded with the trial and adjourned the case to the next day. His lawyers prepared to return to the court the following day.

However in the night, Cpl sebyara was clandestinely whisked to Somalia where he was summarily tried by a military tribunal and convicted before he was sentenced to 20 years in jail.

The Defence and UPDF spokesman Brig Richard Karemire yesterday said: “The issue is that we are operating in Somalia, so soldiers can be tried anywhere we are operating from if they have committed service offences in such places. Sebyara is not the last nor the first. If he rejected the UPDF lawyer and feels the process was unfair, he can appeal.”

Human rights lawyer and Chapter Four executive director Nicholas Opiyo condemned Cpl Sebyara’s trial.

“That case is reminiscent of what happened in Karamoja in March 2002, where a Division Court Martial tried and executed two civilians in 20 minutes for allegedly killing a priest. The officer in charge had mobilised the village to witness the execution and cleared the ground for the same. So clearly, the trial was a mockery of justice,” Mr Opiyo said.

“The trial was done to defeat justice he [Sebyara] was pursuing against the army which he accused of torturing him,” Mr Opio added.
Mr Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, the executive director of the Centre for Media and Justice responded in shock.

“Oh God! The whole process was to defeat justice. I am too shocked and heartbroken to learn of this. I prefer not to comment now. Some of these actions really return Uganda to the dark days we all dread,” he said.

Yesterday, Sebyara’s lawyer, Mr Mugabi said he had written to the General Court Martial requesting for a copy of the judgment to facilitate his appeal but by press time the army had not responded.

{{Genesis of Sebyara’s jeopardy }}

Cpl Ssebyara’s trouble started on June 12, 2015 after some ammunition for an anti-aircraft gun were reported missing. He was held responsible. He was tortured to impotence. Pictures seen by this newspaper which were adduced and admitted in court to prove torture in Somalia show him screaming.

His hands appear tied to a metallic bar and a black sack is tied to his private parts and suspended. The sack is seen dangling between his legs, the navel area growing red and his sexual organs stressed by the weight of the load.

In his petition in the High Court challenging his trial in the General Court Martial, Cpl Sebyara recounted how he was “undressed, insulted and tied by the hands on a steel bar, a bag of about 15kg tied and hanged on his penis and testicles.” He was then handcuffed and dumped in a container for 24 hours.

Medical reports made on October 6 and November 2, 2015, from Nakasero Hospital in Kampala and Bombo Military Hospital respectively indicate his right testicle is shrunk, was non-tender and he suffered from “chronic right testicular infarction and internal echogenicity with no flow.” His testicles had decayed, making him incapable of getting an erection or passing out urine normally.

Attempts by his lawyers to get him further treatment collapsed after the UPDF ignored their pleas.

On September 2, 2015, Cpl Sebyara was arraigned before the General Court Martial and charged with failure to protect war material, an offence that attracts a death sentence on conviction. He denied the charges and petitioned the High Court challenging his trial in the military court.

During the hearing of the petition, army witnesses Col Frank Kyambadde, Maj Tom Bbalibya, and Maj Raphael Mugisha testified that Cpl Sebyara had admitted to selling the missing ammunition to a Somali citizen.

However on November 22, 2016, the High Court declared Cpl Sebyara’s trial in the military court “illegal, null and void” and ordered the army court to release him. The court ruled that Sebyara’s purported confession to selling the ammunition had been extracted under torture and was therefore a nullity in law.
However, to circumvent the High Court order, on December 12, 2016, the army charged Sebyara afresh with “offences relating to security” and trespassing on the property of a Somali resident.

{{The issues at hand}}

Tortured. Cpl Ssebyara’s trouble started on June 12, 2015 after some ammunition for an anti-aircraft gun were reported missing. He was held responsible. He was tortured to impotence. Pictures seen by this newspaper which were adduced and admitted in court to prove torture in Somalia show him screaming.

Medical report. Medical reports made on October 6 and November 2, 2015, from Nakasero Hospital in Kampala and Bombo Military Hospital respectively indicate his right testicle is shrunk, was non-tender and he suffered from “chronic right testicular infarction and internal echogenicity with no flow.” His testicles had decayed, making him incapable of getting an erection or passing out urine normally.

Source:Daily Monitor