More ISO Operatives Lined Up For Interrogation

Torture

Such Tortures has been decried by Human Rights Activists

BY OUR REPORTER

KAMPALA, Uganda|SHIFTMEDIA| After security operatives commandeered by SFC (Special Forces), the Elite Presidential Bridgade that stormed and ransacked several Internal Security Organisation (ISO) safe houses in Kampala, reports from top intelligence source reveal that ISO boss and scores of other operatives are due for interrogation.

Scores of ISO operatives and spies who were arrested during the Friday morning operation are currently being detained in several highly kept secret detention facilities in and around Kampala.

According to the top security source, Kaka Bagyenda, the ISO Boss is due to be quizzed regarding continued complaints against torture reportedly conducted in the various safe houses in and around Kampala.

Torture chambers?

Bagyenda declined to comment when contacted. But the highly place security source revealed to Shiftmedia News that the Commander-Chief- Gen. Yoweri Museveni has of late not been impressed with the reported news of torture in these ISO operated safe houses.

Recently President Museveni penned a letter to ISO Boss Kaka (below) complaining and urging the top spie chief to refrain his “Boys” from torture.

ISO Boss Kaka Bagyenda

Museveni who has always warned the security against using torture as a means of extracting information from suspects told the ISO Director General Kaka that the use of torture as a method of interrogation is outlawed.

Gen Museveni told the ISO DG that under the NRA-turned UPDF, torture can not be used as a method of extracting information from suspects.

In May 2017, shortly after the brutal murder of the Assistant Inspector General of Police Andrew Felix Kaweesi,

President Museveni wrote a communique to the country’s army and police chiefs, warning against the torture of suspects.

Yoweri Museveni’s letter came barely two weeks after suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Andrew Felix Kaweesi submitted court evidence of having been tortured.

A week later, gruesome pictures surfaced of a town mayor with gaping wounds on his knees and ankles which were said to have been inflicted by police.

In his letter, Museveni told the security forces that extracting confessions was not necessary if investigators got results from fingerprints, photographs, DNA tests, and other scientific methods to secure convictions.

“Somebody may admit guilt when he is innocent in order to be spared being tortured,” the communique read.

Museveni also warned against “defective shortcuts” adding that “evidence through torture is not reliable”.

While appearing before a committee of Parliament over reports of torture, Security Minister Gen. Elly Tumwine said:

“There is noth­ing which is open to every­one, there are lim­i­ta­tions to every­thing even in your house, and there are ar­eas which some peo­ple don’t reach. There are ar­eas which for se­cu­rity rea­sons, this com­mit­tee is not al­lowed to visit.”

This was a state­ment by Gen. Elly Tumwine while ap­pear­ing be­fore the Par­lia­men­tary Com­mit­tee of Hu­man Rights. The Min­is­ter had been in­vited to up­date the com­mit­tee on the state of Safehouses in Uganda.

The committee of parliament after they were blocked from accessing one of the safe houses in Kampala

Tumwine was summoned to comment following a mo­tion raised be­fore Parliament by Kawempe North’s Hon. La­tif Sse­bag­gala, Lwemiyaga County MP Theo­dre Sekikubo, and Hon. Kasiano Wadiri for Gen Tumwine to ex­plain what the Gov­ern­ment con­ducted il­le­gal ar­rests and de­ten­tions of Ugan­dans in “safe houses” with­out trial.

Security Minister Gen. Tumwine has admitted Uganda has safe houses

In a heated dis­cus­sion, the Com­mit­tee de­manded that the Min­is­ter re­spond to among other things; whether in­deed there were safe houses in Uganda, the num­ber of safe houses, un­der which laws they were op­er­at­ing, how peo­ple were taken to safe houses, who qual­i­fied to be kept in safe houses and why was it that ma­jor­ity of per­sons who were be­ing kept the safe houses were from the op­po­si­tion par­ties specif­i­cally, “peo­ple power.”(Pres­sure group)

Gen­eral Tumwine in­formed the com­mit­tee that Uganda had safe houses and noted that safe houses were se­cure places used for in­tel­li­gence work. He fur­ther said that all in­tel­li­gence and se­cu­rity agen­cies world over op­er­ate safe houses and that the run­ning of safe houses was not pe­cu­liar to Uganda but a world­wide in­tel­li­gence prac­tice.

He high­lighted that some func­tions of a safe house in Uganda in­cluded:
• To co­or­di­nate clan­des­tine in­tel­li­gence op­er­a­tions
• To de­brief and re-brief in­tel­li­gence as­sets
• To se­cure and pro­tect wit­nesses in dan­ger, es­pe­cially crim­i­nals who have turned into wit­nesses
• To se­cure per­sons who come seek­ing to be pro­tected by the state for var­i­ous se­cu­rity rea­sons
• To man­age hard-core crim­i­nals who re­quire a long time to re­form and now need ob­ser­va­tion and sur­veil­lance.

Shift Media News

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