MPs in support of IPU human rights probe committee

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  |  The Arua Municipality Member of Parliament Kassiano Wadri has appealed to the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) to expeditiously investigate gross human rights violations in Uganda before the 2021 general elections take place.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union Standing Committee on Human Rights for parliamentarians sponsored a resolution to investigate human rights violations in Uganda. 

The committee has since officially written to the NRM government requesting for a date on which it can commence a fact finding mission with regard to the torture of Ugandan MPs during the Arua fracas last year.

The resolution was passed at the recently concluded 141st IPU assembly that has just concluded in Belgrade Serbia.

The team will also meet President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the Attorney General about the safety of legislators after it emerged that Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi, Francis Zaake representing Mityana Municipality and others who were arrested in Arua on August 13, 2018, were tortured in custody. Three MPs had to seek medical treatment abroad.

The army was deployed in Arua prior to the 15th August 2018 by-election that Kassiano Wadri won while in detention with his fellow opposition politicians.

Wadri says that the visiting team must also interest itself in the human rights abuses suffered by ordinary Ugandan’s and not just high profile politicians.

However Michael Mawanda, the Igara East MP has justified the actions of the army in response to the chaos which he believes was instigated by the opposition politicians and supporters.

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