Family and friends with missing persons have been challenged not to cease demands to have their loved ones released.
The call by the executive director of the NGO- Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Dr. Livingstone Ssewanyana comes at a time the country a few days ago marked two years after the November 18th-19th Kampala riots where about 54 people were killed.
According to Dr. Ssewanyana, there must be a relentless demand for justice and accountability, citing the case of Chile where it took more than twenty years to bring the hatchet men during Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year reign of terror to book.
Pinochet was arrested in October 1998 for the various human rights crimes committed during his reign.
Dr. Ssewanyana says the government must account for its citizens if it is to fulfill its responsibility as a true democratic state.
“It remains a blot on Uganda’s human rights record that Uganda is a country that cannot hold perpetrators to account, that can’t provide relief and redress to those who have suffered damage or cannot ascertain the whereabouts of people who go missing,” he argued.
On November 18th, the European Union said they would wait for a full report and perpetrators would be brought to book, while the German embassy said separately that “The 54 victims who were shot by security forces are not forgotten.”
