Date: 23rd April, 2012
Contact: Uganda Governance Monitoring Platform
(UGMP)
+256 414 510 272
Civil
Society Leaders Denounce the Continued Police Brutality, Lack of
Accountability, professionalism and Impunity in the Security Forces.
“The
fact that a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court has been committed by a
person pursuant to an order of a Government or of a superior, whether military
or civilian, shall not relieve that person of criminal responsibility unless:
(a) The person was under a legal obligation to obey orders of the Government or
the superior in question; (b) The person did not know that the order was
unlawful; and(c) The order was not manifestly unlawful. 2. For the purposes of this article, orders
to commit genocide or crimes against humanity are manifestly unlawful.” – Article 33 of the 1998
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
We the leaders of civil society in Uganda strongly condemn the increasing use of barbaric and uncivil methods by security agencies while claiming to manage public order. The most recent of these incidents was the brutal and insensitive fondling of FDC women league chairperson, Ingrid Turinawe’s breasts on Friday 20th April 2012. This particular incident is one of many attempts by the police to publically harm and humiliate the same citizens who they have a constitutional mandate to protect and safeguard. We note that this incident occurs in the context of an increasingly militarized police force whose viciousness has been questioned by the public but condoned by the state. Such incidents inevitably depict a rapidly deteriorating governance order. This shameless display of state brutality and use of sexual assault and molestation was perceivably meant to intimidate and threaten Ugandans of good will who might attempt to blow the whistle on the excesses of the state. Such brutal acts by a public security agency denote a state thoughtless of dignity and sanctity of human life
