Time: 03:15 (25 July 2008)
Usaam Auf Mukwaya, one of the three LGBTI Human Right Defenders who were arrested at the
HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting last month has gone missing. By 21:39 this evening, his
whereabouts where still unknown.
Pepe Julian Onziema, another of the three LGBTI Human Rights Defenders currently facing
court charges for Criminal trespass received a phone call at 3:15pm from a motorcyclist
who identified himself as Amis. Amis who was riding Auf, reports that they were ambushed
by three men in a police patrol vehicle in Nakasero along
saying prayers at a mosque and swiftly driven away. Auf was on his way back to Speke
Hotel where the rest of SMUG Human Rights Defenders and friends had gathered after the
court hearing of the three Human Rights Defenders.
“We were riding from Nakasero when a police patrol vehicle suddenly interrupted our way.
We had approached
waiting, the police patrol parked in front of us and 3 policemen, two in uniform and one
in plain clothes came and asked Auf to get on the patrol car. He asked for a pen from
the policeman in plain clothes in order to write down some contacts. They allowed him to
do so and he gave me the piece of paper and told me to call the contacts and inform
them. There was no violence portrayed at the moment of the arrest”, reports the
motorcyclist.
A few available colleagues from SMUG have moved around five police stations around
and Auf has not been found at any of those stations.
SMUG is still working around time to find where he has been detained. We will keep you
updated on new developments.
This report has been prepared and verified by:
- Pepe Julian Onziema- Co-Chairperson, SMUG
- Victor Mukasa, IGLHRC Official
- Val Kalende, SMUG
- Brian – SMUG
- Aliyah- FARUG
For further information please contact:
Pepe Julian Onziema
Tel: +256-772-370-674
Email:jpepe@sexualminoritiesuganda.org
Brian
Tel: +256-712-428-906
5 comments:
Hey brother.... following this with concern. Hope you're alright?
Me,
am fine for the moment.
Will not talk of tomorrow, since the sun has not yet set and come up. I am ok.
Update.
guy has been released. Apparently unharmed.
Apparently. That is the watch word.
Funny that in this day and age I am judged an enemy of the state because I am gay. Maybe the issue is that I shout out about it. Or that I am different.
I used to hear of dispearances in the days of Idi Amin. Those days are back. In this poor country of mine.
Torture that leaves a mark on the mind. None on the body. Pain that you feel but cannot express.
I am a general that walked into a war that I do not understand, for the ferocity of my enemy.
Glad he was released "unharmed". The SMUG statement was relayed to various interested parties in USA and UK yesterday. This is the kind of threat that you can handle, as long as they don't escalate it(for which, see Zimbabwe right now). You need to be emotionally and mentally ready for it, though!
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