UGANDA HRC ON SHEIKS MURDERS IN UGANDA On Friday 9th January 2015 the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), whose mandate is to protect and promote human rights in Uganda, issued a Statement on the recent: Escalation of incidents of Murders and specifically of Muslim Clerics in Uganda. The Commission revealed that the causes of rampant murders range from: (i) the misuse of fire arms especially by security guards; (ii) guns being in wrong hands after forcefully grabbing them from security personnel; (iii) high prevalence of poverty and hard economic conditions with increasing unemployment levels that make the victims vulnerable and desperate for survival. (iv) low policing capacity evident in the lack of modern investigation equipment; (v) declining community vigilance including lack of LC structures; (vi) inadequate funding to the Uganda Police; (vii) increased cases of human sacrifice and domestic violence; (viii) Land disputes; (ix) porous borders and laxity in security and immigration procedures at borders; and (x) increased incidence of mob action. The Commission called for the following urgent interventions: 1. the Police should widen the scope of investigations to critically look into political, economic, religious/sect, terrorist, criminal, fraud, deals gone sour and family considerations to stem the ‘red herring’ theory and rebuild public confidence by providing regular updates on the progress of investigations; 2. the police should expedite investigations into these murders, conclude them and bring the culprits to justice as well as manage the fear and anxiety among communities and the country at large; 3. government should urgently adequately equip the Police for better crime prevention performance and improve the welfare of the staff in the Uganda Police Force; 4. the police should clarify to the country under which department crime preventers fall for purposes of regulation, supervision and guidance during their work; 5. UHRC reiterates the call to the Ministry of Local Government to urgently reinstatement of Local Council structures at the village level to take care of security in the communities; 6. police should step up community policing programs and enhance sensitization of communities to report crime or suspected crime and suspicious persons in their communities; 7. members of the public should respect other persons’ rights including the right to life and respect the rule of law by desisting from taking the law into their hands; 8. the public should endeavor not to tamper with scenes of crime to enable the dog section to do its work and should cooperate with investigating teams by willingly providing information in their possession related to the murders; 9. members of the public should refrain from making statements that may cause further anxiety among communities and report alleged cases of missing relatives to the authorities and 10. all security agencies should strengthen the control of armories, use and movement of arms in the country. The Commissions statement is available at: uhrc.ug/statement-recent-escalation-incidents-murders-and-specifically-muslim-clerics-uganda Alislam
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 12:49:01 +0000
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