66 FDC Members in Prison
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The Monitor (Kampala)
May 10, 2005
Posted to the web May 9, 2005
Hussein Bogere
Kampala
At least 60 leaders and supporters of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) have been detained since October 2004 on treason and murder charges.
The opposition party contends that the detentions of its members are politically motivated.
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Some have spent more than two years in prison without trial.
"We have visited prisons and found out that there are 66 leaders and supporters of FDC in detention. We have researched and it would appear that there is a plan by the Movement government to remove our supporters," Mr Aligabe Akida said at the party's offices in Najjanankumbi yesterday.
Akida is a member of FDC's Human Rights Committee.
"Another formula we have discovered is harassment. Why is this so? It's a tactic of not levelling the [political] ground for every person," he said.
A senior FDC official told The Monitor that 12 of the party members are detained in Makindye military barracks on treason charges.
The number of those in Kigo Prison on the Lake Victoria shores has not been compiled.
The latest FDC members to be arrested are MPs Reagan Okumu (Aswa) and Michael Ocula (Kilak) who are in Luzira on murder charges.
They are accused of murdering Alfred Bongomin, a former Movement chairman in Pabbo, Gulu district in 2002.
"We are not saying that those who break the law should not be arrested. Don't you think this is a way of rigging elections because there will be two people less in Parliament?" Akida asked.
The FDC Chairman, Col. Dr Kizza Besigye, and other members, Lt. Col. Samson Mande, Lt. Col. Anthony Kyakabale, Capt. Khassim Katumba, Mr Emmanuel Kayari fled the country in 2001 citing persecution by the State. The government has since alleged that they are training a rebel group called the People's Redemption Army under Besigye's leadership.
But Besigye has repeatedly dismissed the claims as a government ploy to persecute the opposition.
In November last year, the government arrested Besigye's brother, Mr Joseph Musasizi Saasi, Rukungiri District Speaker George Owakukiroru and his brother Peter Atwongyeire, Mr Darius Tweyambe, Capt. Katabazi and several others on accusations that they were involved in subversive activities.
They are in Luzira Prison on treason charges.
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"People have been imprisoned at the time when this country needs critical leaders to reach a democratic transition," Akida said.
FDC also deplored the conditions under which the prisoners are living.
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