| Headlines |
'CMI crashed my testicles'
Carolyne Nakazibwe & Tom Malaba
Human Rights Network – Uganda (HURINET) yesterday paraded several people allegedly tortured by the army.The scene was HURINET's Ntinda office.
Fred Bagoole, a businessman from Kamuli district, told journalists he was tortured by Chieftaincy for Military Intelligence (CMI) operatives, who crashed his testicles.
Bagoole said a taxi he was travelling in on May 5, 2001 was blocked by a white Toyota Mark II at Namanve, where he and four other passengers were thrown into the car (Mark II), robbed of more than Shs 1.8m, and mobile phones.
He said his four colleagues were later shot dead at the Golf Course, opposite Fairway Hotel, in Kampala.
"If you remember the bodies police discovered at Golf Course... I was part of them but I was spared fearing that gunshots could attract police, so I was ordered back into the car and they drove round the Mulago roundabout and entered a building," Bagoole said in Luganda.
"At the gate, the soldiers on duty questioned my tormentors about the gunshots, but when the big man [he later identified him as one Capt. Kamusiime] stepped out of the car, they quickly saluted and threw the gates open."
Bagoole said he was tortured to near death and was transferred to a special room in Mbuya for three months and three weeks, where his wounds started rotting and smelling.
"When I was being treated at Mbuya Hospital later, the doctor asked if I had any children. I said no, then he apologised and told me my testicles had to be removed," he said.
"Maj. Kayanja, a Mutooro, [then] of JAT [Joint Anti-terrorism Task force] told me to say, if asked where I had been, that I was in Kasese looking for work."
HURINET national coordinator Martin O. Masiga said he decided to call a press conference when he noticed the cases were on the increase.
Christopher Ssozi was reportedly tortured by Operation Wembley officials who picked him up Oct. 26.
The operatives questioned him about a doorbell that disappeared from the building site where he worked in Ntinda in Kampala.
The site owner, one Madam Safira of Safira Cleaning Services, reportedly asked Wembley to arrest Ssozi and a storekeeper Bosco Byaruhanga.
Ssozi said a heavy block was tied to his private parts and he was told to pull it.
"I told them they would rather kill me than have me do that. I provoked them so they could shoot me, but they didn't. They said they were from Operation Wembley which killed Black, and if I didn’t say where the bell was, they would do the same to me,” Ssozi said.
John Mbakulo of Doctors without Borders said his sister-in-law, Juliana Adyeeri, framed him that he had robbed a truck full of Cheers beverages valued at Shs 12m.
Other Wembley victims were from Uganda Railways Corporation, Port Bell station, who said they were tortured after containers belonging to a company called Texico turned up empty from Mwanza.
One Lubega, who owns Texico, allegedly took them to Operation Wembley offices on Clement Hill where they were tortured for allegedly stealing his batteries valued at Shs 120m.
The Port Bell stationmaster, Geoffrey Waninda, said he was picked from TOTAL refilling station in Luzira, slapped and later whipped for about 30 minutes at the Wembley office.
He said it was Special Revenue Police Service spokesman Lt. Barigye Ba-Hoku who rescued him and three other URC workers.
One of the workers, Martin Ochieng, said his private parts were almost in “bits and pieces”.
The victims displayed different scars from the torture meted out on them.
Masiga said government should have strengthened the police to counter armed robberies, instead of starting Operation Wembley.
“Operation Wembley is illegitimate and a violation of the Constitution of Uganda. On top of that, they are abusing the operation to settle personal scores,” Masiga said.
Operation Wembley was put in place in August by President Yoweri Museveni to curb armed robberies that were rocking the city.
The Chairman of African Centre for Rehabilitation and Trea tment of Torture Victims, Dr. Sam Lukulwase Nsamba said his centre is helping 15 victims of mistaken identity by Operation Wembley.
He said Uganda is a signatory to international conventions against torture, which should be taken seriously, even when government is handling murderers.
HURINET now wants Operation Wembley called off.
November 30, 2002 00:47:36
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