[Ugnet] State tapping our phones - Ruzindana

[Matek Opoko]

State tapping our phones - Ruzindana
By Mercy Nalugo & Hussein Bogere
Dec 8, 2004

PARLIAMENT- Senior members of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) are being trailed, the party's senior spokesman, Mr Wafula Ogutu has said. "Black cars and huge motorcycles have been trailing senior members of FDC and we have been studying them," Wafula said. He was yesterday speaking to Journalists at a press conference organised by Agago MP Prof. Ogenga Latigo at Parliament. Latigo is an FDC promoter and also one of the four MPs that were beaten up by the UPDF soldiers at Acholibur. Wafula said gunmen in black cars follow the members with tinted glasses like those of the military. It is not trailing, said Mr Augustine Ruzindana, one of the FDC co-chairman on telephone. Our phones have been tapped, mails opened and any other form of harassment. It is a pattern, he continued. Former Army Commander Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu said he had not been in the country for the last two weeks so he had not yet been briefed. I will talk to them (leaders). When contacted on telephone yesterday, Police spokesman Asumsn Mugyenyi said he had not received any report on FDC leaders being trailed. "I am not aware of any such thing," he said. However, The Monitor could neither reach Dr James Nsaba Buturo nor CMI Chief James Mugira for comment. Wafula said one of their junior staff; Ms Janat Acan was abducted last week from their offices in Bukoto. He recounted that on November 30, men in a dark blue car with tinted glasses resurfaced and quizzed the guard, Mr Richard Odongo on Acan's whereabouts. According to Wafula, the same car came back with gunmen a day after and abducted Odongo after which he was abandoned behind the Central Police Station, Kampala. They too arrested Acan's wife and twins from his home in Masindi and dropped them at his other home in Kyebando. Latigo too said his driver Sam Ongiya and himself met a black Toyota Corolla registration number VH266Z as they were coming from Kyambogo University on Saturday. He said after Ongiya dropped him home, he was abducted on his way back by the same gunmen that were following them. Latigo believes the state has a hand in all that is happening. "The State never planned for what is happening. They did not know that people like Ruzindana, Pulkol, would leave them. They did not know that people like the Wafulas would join politics. But am not surprised because the best instinct behind the Movement is the gun and suppression of innocent Ugandans," Latigo said. His driver who was abducted narrated how the men burnt him in the chest using a hot object and how they tied a hot wire around his arms. "The men picked me from Namuwongo stage after I had dropped my boss and ordered me to enter their car or else they shoot me," Ongiya recalled. Having tortured him for two days without giving him food, they dropped him of at Kakira Sugar plantation. "They asked me where my bosses hold secret meetings from and the people with whom they attend these meetings with. Having denied knowledge, they threatened to kill me," Ongiya said. Latigo said even if they killed him, they would not take away his principles.

� 2004 The Monitor Publications

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