ANALYSIS: Kasese killings

However, there have been long-standing tensions, unresolved grievances and episodic violence between the government and the ethnic Bakonzo people.

The most recent episode started in the early morning of Nov. 25, with the army, driving armed personnel vehicles under the command of Brig. Peter Elwelu (now Maj. Gen.) and supported by police, began patrolling Kasese town.

The soldiers circled the area of the kingdom’s administration offices on Alexander Street, going around the block several times. The soldiers then ordered shopkeepers to close their businesses and demanded access to the kingdom offices.

The royal guards then closed the doors and refused the soldiers entry even though no official representative from the kingdom was present. Confrontation between the soldiers and the royal guards ensued and gunfire began shortly.

Human Rights Watch says people heard soldiers yelling “Come out!” in Kiswahili with little success.

The soldiers eventually used ladders to scale the walls, pierced the roof and shot those inside.

Eight royal guards, two of them women, were killed, and soldiers removed computers and documents, numerous witnesses said. The army then went to neighboring shops, ordering shopkeepers to open their doors to see whether any royal guards were hiding inside, and stealing money and sodas.

Serious questions remain about the conduct of the military and police on Alexander Street that morning, from the failure of police to seek a warrant to search the office and potentially impound documents and computers, if there was a legitimate law enforcement objective, to the use of lethal force leading to so many deaths.

Human Rights Watch says the UN Principles on the Use of Force require law enforcement officials, including military units, to apply nonviolent means before resorting to force, to use force only in proportion to the seriousness of the offense, and to use lethal force only when strictly unavoidable to protect life.

When the Human Rights Watch contacted the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) spokesperson Brig. Richard Karemire on Feb.24, he reportedly said there has been no investigation into the military’s conduct and that none is planned.

The reaction by government is seen as a deliberate effort to block efforts to have the killings investigated.

But Muwanga Kivumbi insists that much as there have been government efforts to suppress the Committee of Defence and Internal Affairs or any other internal mechanisms to do an independent investigation on what happened, the Kasese killings cannot be wished away.

The parliamentary committee on defense and internal affairs began its work on Dec. 7 to investigate post-electoral violence in the Rwenzori sub region but its inquiries quickly stopped and the chairperson told the media there would be no parliamentary report about the violence citing the sub-judice rule.

Muwanga says when the MPs on this committee met President Museveni, he was very clear that no investigation into the Kasese killings would be permitted. That, Kivumbi says, was an attempt to suppress independent voices. Therefore, the HRW and other international agencies that have a mandate outside Uganda’s jurisdiction remained the only legitimate organs that could do such an investigation.

The government has tended to make all efforts to have the country forget what happened in Kasese by suppressing stories, by coming up with flimsy excuses, Kivumbi added. However, activists and the diplomatic community appear to be pushing back.

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editor@independent.co.ug