Bwana Ssemakula: Where I come from they say "mac onywalo buro" - fire begets ash, i.e. one can tell with certainity where the ash comes from.
Ochan At 05:06 PM 10/18/02 +0000, you wrote: >Mr. Otim, > >The parallels in prison conditions between Mr. Nyakairu's >detention/imprisonment by Museveni in 2002 and that of Obote's detention of >Mr Lule (Chronicled in Transition) in the late 1960s is striking, if not >chilling. > >I hope the press can pick up a sustained campaign against poor/inhumane >prison conditions in Uganda. it is the civilized, even if unpopular, thing >to do. > > > > > >----Original Message Follows---- >From: Ochan Otim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: ugnet_: Jailed Reporter Receives Mixed Reception from Prison Mates >Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 15:26:04 -0700 > >Jailed Reporter Receives Mixed Reception from Prison Mates > >Monitor (Kampala) >October 17, 2002 >Posted to the web October 17, 2002 > >Nabusayi L. Wamboka >Kampala > >It was a breakfast of chicken and chapati washed down with black tea. That >was a rather heavy breakfast for most restaurants in Gulu, but it was just >as well. > >After combing most breakfast places in town, they zeroed in on Mina >restaurant. A phone call from the Gulu-based 4 Division spokesman Lt. Paddy >Ankunda, which kept The Monitor reporter Frank Nyakairu talking, led the men >in military uniform to their day's target. > >Nyakairu was eventually arrested from Mina on Oct. 11, a day after arriving >in Gulu, over a now-contested story he wrote about a helicopter gunship >crashing while smoking out LRA rebels in Adilang Hills in Pader district. > >His first night was a chilly one. It was a cell that had been turned into a >urinal by its previous occupants. > >"It was stinking and very cold. There was urine everywhere with only patchy >dry areas," he said. > >Nyakairu spread out his jumper for a bed on the floor. Then he ate a piece >of bread and drunk water, both of which he had carried, and later lay down >to sleep with the mosquitoes buzzing and the cold biting. > >Then it started raining. And he had nowhere to sleep because the whole place >got soaked within moments. > >On his second day in the cell, Nyakairu was allowed a mattress and food from >friends and relatives. This was to be for the next few days until Tuesday >night when hell broke loose. > >At midnight, a stinking jacket hurled in his face woke him up. It was >announcing the presence of his cellmate for the night; a drunk, >marijuana-smoking local administration policeman whose crime Nyakairu didn't >get to know. > >"He immediately started struggling for my bedding and it was obvious he was >drunk," Nyakairu said. "He pushed me off my bed and took over." Nyakairu >became a very frightened young man, but not one without a survival instinct. > >"When he lit his marijuana stick and started smoking. I was so scared I knew >I had to fight for my life," Nyakairu said. > >When his cellmate went wild and attacked, trying to strangle him, Nyakairu >fought back punching and kicking until he heard him call out for help. > >"Because he was drunk and a little weak, I said I would exploit that >weakness and that is how I managed to fight him. Eventually the guards came >in and ordered him to one side of the cell and told him not to move." > >Nyakairu eventually had a candle-lit night. Lighting one candle after >another with all eyes on his enemy, he lived another night. > >"In the morning, he had sobered up and even tried to apologise," >Nyakairu said. "We made up and even shared my food." > >On Wednesday, Nyakairu was transferred to Kampala in handcuffs in a police >double cabin car and was immediately checked into a cell for the notorious >at Central Police Station. > >"It was some kind of dungeon with over 200 people all squeezed together, >including children, some as young as two," Nyakairu said. > >"Their mothers have been arrested and because they [children] couldn't be >left alone, they came along with them and they have been there, mingling >with some very tough guys. Within that dungeon there was another cell for >the most hardened fellows." > >The prisoners told him that this cell (the inner one for the most notorious >of criminals) was specifically manned by military intelligence officers. >That was where Nyakairu spent his first night back in Kampala. > >"When I stepped in, several of them told me kulikayo nyo," Nyakairu said. >"There was one lying still on one side, who I was told was the famous Black. >Right behind me was the man who I was told beat Museveni's security detail >during the Independence Day celebrations." > >The man is called Abdalla Bilal Twombayi from DR Congo. Black is alleged to >a hardened criminal whom security agencies had hunted for years. Black was >arrested about three weeks ago. > >Nyakairu said that when his inmates learnt he was the reporter who had >written the gunship story, he was bombarded with questions, accusations, but >most of all a welcome. "They offered me water and food. I tried to say I'm >okay but I was really scared," Nyakairu said. > >But they were his company for the night. > > > >Look out for the most explosive conversation between infamous Black in The >Sunday Monitor, and the man who delivered the envelope to Museveni at >Kololo. It was the most thrilling longest chat that you don't want to miss. > > >_________________________________________________________________ >Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online >http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 > > >
