Background

 

 

Summarised list of the mindboggling activities of Mr Yoweri Museveni and his group from 1980 to date.

1. Use of violence to attain and retain political power 1981 - 1986
2.The 27 years of disguised Military Cum Disguised NRM Single Party Rule
3.The ban on political pluralism 1986-2005,
4. Rigging elections time after time
5. State sponsored terrorism against pro-democracy activists in Uganda
6. Use and perpectuation of military conflicts in Northern and Eastern Uganda for his own political gains
7. Invasion and plunder of neighboring countries (Rwanda, DRC and Sudan) to create satellite states under Mr. Museveni’s control
8. Perennial state condoned gross and chronic corruption.
9. Sectarianism, marginalization and imbalanced regional development.
10.Perennial impoverishment of the masses for his Patronage and manipulation to prevail
11. Perennial abuse of human rights intimidation and censorship of media and curtailing freedom of; assembly, association, demonstration, expression through self-censorship
12. The mind-boggling, unconstitutional changing of article 105 (clause 2) of the Constitution which had put a limit on presidential terms
13 Bogus increased defense spending , militarization of the law and order sector
14 The Public Order Management Act (POMA) Gen. Yoweri Museveni turned into law to legalize his total dictatorship.
15 The obnoxious anti-pornography law which seeks to return the enslavement of women in our society
16 The recently signed obnoxious anti – homosexuality law

 17. The obnoxious anti-pornography law which seeks to return the enslavement of women in our society

18. Numerous murders, maimings, arson, use of mass graves to cover up etc

Background to the situation in Uganda under the current regime

As we may be all aware, the Uganda situation has been a subject of investigation by many organisations both inside and outside the country. The Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Transparent International and many others have either had an interest to investigate or have investigated the Uganda situation and their findings resonate well with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1593 (2005) which affirms that justice and accountability are critical to achieve lasting peace and security in any country.
Investigation
For a long time, the Uganda Diaspora Nederland(hereafter refered to as UDN) has collected statements and evidence from various sources. Throughout the investigation, the UDN has examined what may be called incriminating and exonerating facts in an independent manner.
For the purpose of this submission, the UDN has relied primarily on: (1) witness statements taken from eyewitnesses and victims of attacks in the mentioned places; (2) got recorded interviews of the National Resistance Movement (hereafter refered to as NRM) government officials; (3) statements taken from individuals who possess knowledge of the activities of officials and representatives of the Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (hereafter refered to as YKM) government and of the various militias in the country; (4) documents and other information issued by human rights organisations and human rights watch dogs (5) the Report of the UN Commission of Inquiry into the atrocities and plunder of the DRC Congo; (6) documents and other materials obtained from open sources.In accordance with the principle of “complementarity”, at all times the UDN has assessed the existence of national proceedings and found that there are no credible independent national proceedings in the country against the perpetrators of crimes relevant to this submission. Additionally, the UDN is aware of the incarceration of some officers who refused to comply with YKM’s orders to commit genocide and many other crimes against humanity

Consistent with the requirements of Article 58 (2)(d) of the Rome Statute, the UDN furnished in the application a summary of the evidence sufficient to establish reasonable grounds to believe that YKM committed crimes within the jurisdiction of the international legal system.
The Context in which Crimes were Committed
Since he assumed power in January, 1986, YKM has engaged in political and military struggles with groups both in Uganda, the peripheries of Uganda and sometimes outside Uganda, seen as threats to his power. In Northern Uganda, he assessed that the Acholi and Langi ethnic groups, found that they were socially and politically dominant groups and constituted such threats as: they challenged the economic and political marginalization of their region, and members of these groups reasonable military experience having been in power for decades and had organised themselves into movements ready to compete for power.
YKM then set out to quell those movements through armed force and, over the years, also employed a policy of exploiting real or perceived grievances between the different tribes struggling to prosper in the difficult environment. He promoted the idea of a polarization between tribes percieved not to be aligned with the Government, whom he labeled “enemies of his movement”, and therefore he perceived them the main threats. The image is only one of many devices used by YKM to disguise his crimes.
For many years despite persistent appeals from various experts, elders, religious leaders and organised organisations, YKM refused to heed advice to negotiate with opponents, instead choosing to destroy in part the Luo land, on account of their ethnicity. His motives were largely political. His pretext was a “counterinsurgency”. His aim was to teach them a lesson they would never forget. His intent was genocide.
The crimes
Genocide by killing members of the target groups
For many years, YKM gave orders giving “carte blanche” to his subordinates to quell the rebellion and in most cases took no prisoners, triggering a series of brutal attacks against the Langi and Acholi ethnic groups. The Armed Forces, often acting together with Militias, singled out for attack those villages and small towns inhabited mainly by members of the target groups. The attackers went out of their way to spare from attack villages inhabited predominantly by other tribes considered aligned with the Government, even where they were located very near villages inhabited predominantly by members of the targeted groups.
The UDN has charted all the known attacks and the results show that the overwhelming majority of villages attacked were inhabited mainly by the target groups. They were clearly selected for attack.
The Armed Forces and Militias carried out such attacks jointly and in a similar pattern throughout. Typically, the Armed Forces would arrive in trucks and land cruisers mounted with machine guns and other fire arms while in other instances armed men would immerge from bushes, masquerade as rebels and then embark on killing sprees, inflicting deaths and destruction. On other occasions, the Air Force would be called upon to drop bombs on the village as a precursor to the attacks. The ground forces would then enter the village or town and attack civilian inhabitants. They kill men, children, elderly, women; they subject women and girls to massive rapes. They burn and loot the villages. And then some would be seen running back to the bush as though they were rebels.
The targets are not rebel forces, but the Acholi and Langi tribesmen and women. Attacks were typically launched against civilian targets, and did not cease until the town or village, in its entirety, had been victimized and its population forcibly displaced, regardless of the lack of rebel presence or the lack of any valid military objective. Witnesses have also described instances in which rebels were known to be located outside of towns or villages, but attackers from the Armed Forces and Militias bypassed those locations to attack the towns or villages instead.
Armed conflicts have existed in Northern and Western Uganda and in those conflicts YKM used the opportunity to silence opponents both armed and unarmed. The Government has the right to use force to defend itself against insurgents. However the crimes covered here are not the collateral damage of a military campaign. At all times relevant to this submission, YKM specifically and purposefully targeted civilians who were not participants to any conflict with the intent to destroy them, as a group.
In Northern and Eastern Uganda about 500,000 people were killed outright in such attacks; an overwhelming majority of them coming from the target groups.
The fate of the displaced persons
Almost the entire population of the target groups were forcibly displaced following the attacks. Data from Internally Displaced Camps confirm that most of those displaced belonged to the target groups.
As of December 2004, the total number of people summarily locked up in the highly deplorable camps was approximately 1,200,000, these included men, women, the elderly and children. Those who managed to flee went as far as Kenya and some are still languishing in Kakuma refugee camp todate. One of the authors of this document (Joel Wakayima) was a resident of Kakuma refugee camp for close to three years, so he should be believed since he was a victim himself.

Continuation of the background.
As already documented, General Yoweri Museveni`s NRM party had turned Uganda into a single party state until a combined pressure from the International community and Internal pro-democracy activists and the Uganda Diaspora forced him to allow political parties to resume activities. But even after ‘’allowing just a semblance of multiparty democracy, he has continued to manage it as if it was a one party state. The opening up of political party activities did not transition Uganda from the disguised Military Cum Disguised NRM Single Party Rule to a Multi-party democracy. Gen. Yoweri Museveni `s use of violence to attain and retain political power and his 30 years overstaying in power using political patronage, corruption, a fraudulent electoral processes, rigging elections year in year out have led to massive unemployment, poverty, wanting service delivery, re-occurring military conflicts in the Northern, Eastern and Western Region of Uganda are clear manifestation of that argument.

The Brig. Muhoozi Kainerugaba (his son) project that has seen illegal recruitment of Mr Museveni’s son and promoting him rapidly (to the detriment of senior officers) and glooming the said Brigadier Muhoozi Kainerugaba to succeed him is a clear manifestation of a family dynasty whose construction by Mr Museveni is almost completing and whose intention is to rule Uganda and the Great Lakes Region until death stops them.

These negative trends make Ugandans, neighbors, friends of Uganda and Uganda’s development partners worried that history may repeat itself and Uganda could be be on the path to a genocide.
There is reasonable cause for worry that the country could soon slip into a situation like that in Somalia or Syria if not handled seriously and urgently.

The recent bangled election
Lord Justice, we your petitioners contend that the following offences and illegal practices were committed in connection with the Presidential and Parliamentary elections which were conducted in February 2016, in total contravention of the law:
(a) (i) Contrary to Section 64 (1) and (4) of the Presidential Elections Act hereinafter referred to as “the Act” Mr Yoweri Museveni and his agents with his knowledge and consent or approval gave a bribe of hoes to the voters of West Nile with intent that they should vote him and should refrain from voting the other presidential candidates.
(ii) in contravention of Section 64 (1) and (4) of the Presidential Elections Act between mid-2015 and 16th and 18th of February 2016 Mr Yoweri Museveni through his agents and with the knowledge and consent or approval gave a bribe of Ushs250,000 (Uganda Shillings) to voters in every village throughout Uganda on two occasions with intent that they should vote him and to refrain from voting the other candidates
(b) Contrary to S.69 (1) (a) and (b) of the Act Mr Yoweri Museveni made reckless statements while referring to his opponents that he was not prepared to hand over power to ‘’wolves’’and that the followers-cum-supporters of the opposition were mad people.
(c) Contrary to Section 26 (b) of the Act Mr Yoweri Museveni organized, under the Uganda Police, a political partisan militia, the so-called “crime preventers” under the superintendence of the Inspector General of Police General Kale Kayihura, a paramilitary force –cum-militia to use force and violence against persons suspected of not supporting candidate Yoweri Kaguta Museveni thereby causing a breach of peace, disharmony and disturbance of public tranquility and induce others to vote against their conscience in order to gain unfair advantage for candidate Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
(c) Contrary to Sections 24 (5) (a) (i) (ii) (b) (c) (d) and 7 of the Act Mr Yoweri Museveni on several occasions threatened to arrest your he opposition candidates and candidate Kizza Besigye and used derogatory and reckless language when he stated that the opposition candidates had touched “the anus of a leopard” and that they would see what would happen to them and this had the effect of scaring voters to vote Mr Yoweri Museveni for their own safety.
(d) Contrary to Sections 24 (5) (a) (i) (ii) (b) (c) + (d) and 7 of the Act Mr Yoweri Museveni on various occasions threatened that if the voters elected any body else, Uganda would go back to war and this had the effect of inducing fear in the country.
(e) That the above illegal practices and offences were committed by the Mr Yoweri Museveni personally or and his agents and supporters with his knowledge and consent or approval through the Police, some elements of the Military, Special Forces and the organs of the State attached to his office under his command as the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Chairman of the National Defence Council and High Command and Chairman of the National Resistance Movement.
In contravention of Section 3 (1) (2) of the Act, under the directive of the Mr Yoweri Museveni, the Inspector General of Police General Kale Kayihura and his officers prevented other candidates, as aspirants from conducting consultations with voters in preparation for their nomination as a presidential candidates.
Under the directive of the Mr Yoweri Museveni some officers under the command of General Kale Kayihura of the Uganda Police Force applied force and arrested several opposition candidates and their supported along Jinja Road in Njeru Town Council near the Owen Falls Dam Bridge and publicly humiliated them and later detained them at Kira Road Police Station and other ungazetted places thereby giving unfair advantage to the Mr Yoweri Museveni who on the other hand was freely criss-crossing the country undeterred under the guise of “wealth creation” (sic) when he was in effect campaigning.

Contrary to Sections 9 and 10 of the Act:
(a) The Mr Yoweri Museveni was nominated by the Electoral Commission (hereafter refered to as EC) illegally on the 3rd day of November 2015 when Mr Yoweri Museveni had not yet been sponsored by the National Resistance Movement Party on whose ticket he purportedly contested.
(b) The EC acted improperly when it extended the deadline to give the Mr Yoweri Museveni more time instead of declaring Mr Yoweri Museveni nomination papers null and void under Section 11 of the Act after the deadline had passed and after all other candidates had submitted their respective documents thereby giving the Mr Yoweri Museveni unfair advantage.
Contrary to Section 12 (i) (e) of the Election Commission Act, the EC failed to accord equal treatment to the other candidates when it failed to prevail upon authorities and agencies of government such as the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation and the New Vision Publishing Corporation through their electronic and print media to render equal coverage to them to enable them present programs but they offered preferential treatment to Mr. Yoweri Museveni Contrary to Section 26 of the Act, Mr. Yoweri Museveni directed a one [retired] Major General to fly the Mr. Yoweri Museveni fully decorated with the Mr. Yoweri Museveni’s campaign posters and party colours to land at Boma Ground Fort Portal and instilled fear and uncertainty and in effect interfering with the scheduled electioneering activities of others culminating in the disruption of the rallies of the other candidates.
Contrary to Section 27 of the Act, Mr. Yoweri Museveni made use of government resources which are not ordinarily attached to and utilized by the President without proper authorization by law thereby having unfair advantage over the other candidates.
Contrary to Section 28(a) (b) (c) of the Act on 18th February 2016 officials of the EC delivered to many polling stations the voting materials late and at many polling stations voting did not commence until 2:00 pm and in some places at 4:00pm and yet others at 8:30pm and ended after 1:00am in other places. This was deliberately done to steal votes, cause anxiety, and mayhem.
Contrary to the provisions of Sections 33 and 48 (4) and (5) of the Act on the polling day during the polling exercise several thousands of the agents of the opposition were chased away from the Polling Stations in many districts of Uganda and as a result opposition candidates’ interests at those polling stations could not be safeguarded.
Contrary to Section 30 (2) and (5) of the Act, the EC and its agents/servants allowed voting before the official polling time and allowed people to vote beyond the polling time by people who were neither present at polling stations nor in the line of voters at the official hour of closing.
Contrary to Section 31 (8) of the Act, EC’s agents/servants in the course of their duties, allowed commencement of the poll with pre-ticked ballot papers, ballot boxes already stuffed with ballot papers and without first opening the said boxes in full view of all present to ensure that they are devoid of any contents.
Contrary to Section 32 of the Act, the EC’s agents/servants/the Presiding Officers in the course of their duties and with full knowledge that some people had already voted allowed the same people to vote more than once.
Contrary to Art. 61 (1) (e) of the 1995 Constitution and Section 12 (f) and Section 18 of the Electoral Commission Act, the EC failed in its statutory duty of properly compiling and securely maintaining the integrity of the National Voters’ Register and instead illegally retired the duly compiled Voters’ register and purported to create another using data compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Contrary to Section 35 (1) and (2) of the Act, the EC failed to identify voters by their respective voters cards but instead applied an unreliable, slow and suspect biometric identification machines thereby denying legitimate registered voters their right to vote and creating room for persons not duly registered to vote.
Contrary to Section 12 (b) and (c) of the Electoral Commission Act 2005, the EC failed to control the distribution and use of ballot boxes and ballot papers resulting in the commission of numerous election offences under the Act as hereunder:-
(a) Unauthorized persons got possession of ballot papers and other ballot documents relating to the election and used them during the election.
(b) Unauthorized persons and/or officials of the 2nd Respondent used the ballot documents acquired to stuff ballot boxes, tick ballot papers on behalf of the voters, vote more than once and/or doctor figures in the Declaration of Results Forms (DRs) and Tally sheets.
Contrary to Section 33 of the Act, the EC’s agents/servants the Presiding Officers failed to prevent the Petitioner’s polling agents from being chased away from Polling Stations and as a result the opposition’s agents were unable to observe and to monitor the voting process.
Contrary to Sections 30 (4) and 35 of the Act, the EC and its agents/servants, the Presiding Officers in the course of their duties allowed people with no Valid Voter’s Cards to vote or denied those who had cards from voting.
Contrary to Section 43 of the Act the EC and its agents/servants in the course of their duties allowed people with deadly weapons, to wit soldiers and the so-called Crime Preventers at Polling Stations – a presence which intimidated many voters to vote for the soldiers’ boss and candidate Yoweri Kaguta Museveni while many of those who disliked being forced to vote for that candidate stayed away and refrained from voting at all. This is disenfrancisement of the citizens and it is illegal.
Contrary to Section 48 of the Act the EC’s agents/servants in the course of their duties denied the opposition’s Polling Agents information concerning the counting and tallying process.
Contrary to Section 49 of the Act EC’s agents/servants allowed the voting and carried out the counting and tallying of votes in the forced absence of the opposition’s agents whose duty was to safeguard the interests of the opposition candidates by observing the voting, counting and tallying process and ascertaining the results.
Contrary to Section 12 (1) (e) and (f) of the Electoral Commission Act the EC failed to ensure that the entire Presidential Electoral process was conducted under conditions of freedom and fairness and as a result the opposition and their agents’ campaigns were interfered with by some elements of the military including the Special Forces and the so-called Crime Preventers under General Kale Kayihura.
Thousands of the agents of the opposition candidates and their supporters were abducted and some arrested enmasse by elements of the army to prevail upon them to vote for the Mr Yoweri Museveni by force or to refrain from voting in contravention of Section 76 (b) of the Presidential Elections Act.
Contrary to Sections 72 () and (j) and 73 (b) of the Act some of the EC’s agents/servants the Presiding Officers/Polling Assistants in the course of their duties ticked ballot papers in Mr. Yoweri Museveni’s favour and later gave them to voters to put in the ballot boxes and others interfered with ballot boxes and stuffed them with already ticked ballot papers, and failed to prevent “table voting” in some areas such as in Kiruhura District and in most areas of the cattle corridor in Uganda.
The commission of the herein mentioned offences and illegal practices by Mr. Yoweri Museveni and instances of non-compliance with the provisions of the law by the EC are proved by electronic evidence, affidavit evidence and several reports of eminent observer teams which should be relied upon as the European Commission decides what to do about these vote thugs. In the result, such non-compliance with the provisions of the Presidential Elections Act 2005 and of the Electoral Commission Act as aforesaid affected the result of the Presidential Election in a substantial manner as hereunder:
(i) The number of actual voters on the Voters’ Roll/Register remained unknown and some people were disenfranchised and the number of votes cast during the election at certain Polling Stations exceeded the registered number of registered voters or the ballot papers delivered at the station.
(ii) The identity of some of the voters could not be verified.
(iii) The electoral process regarding the voters’ register was full of serious flaws and some of the voters were denied the chance and sufficient time to correct those flaws.
(iv) No sufficient time was allowed for the opposition candidates and their agents and supporters to scrutinize the voters roll/register and take corrective measures regarding the same.
(v) The opposition candidates’ Polling Agents were denied the opportunity to safeguard their candidates’ interests at the time of voting, counting and tallying of votes and in such absence, illegal voters voted while legitimate voters voted more than once.
(vi) The opposition was unduly hindered from freely canvassing support by the presence of some members of the military and so-called crime preventers and militia who intimidated the voters.
(vii) It cannot positively be ascertained that the Mr. Yoweri Museveni obtained more than 50% of valid votes of those entitled to vote.
Now therefore Madam Federica Mogherini, we your Petitioners pray that the highly esteemed and honored office of the Foreign Affairs chief of the European Commission declares:-
(a) That Mr.Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was not validly elected as President of Uganda
(b) That the election was very chaotic, fell short of the standards recognised by both domesitic law and International was therefore null and void.

SANCTIONS

According to the Dutch govt website on sanctions ( www.government.nl):
The international community can use sanctions to change the behaviour of a country or regime, in cases where that country or regime is violating human rights, waging war or endangering international peace and security.

We are all indeed aware for example that  Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) provides a legal basis for the interruption or reduction, in part or completely, of the Union’s economic and financial relations with one or more third countries, where such restrictive measures are necessary to achieve the objectives of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) as is clearly enshrined in the European law books.
We therefore solemnly request the esteemed office of the European commission and the European Council to seriously unequivocally consider freezing of funds and economic resources of :
(a) persons, entities and bodies responsible for the violations of human rights or the repression of civil society and democratic opposition, or whose activities otherwise undermine democracy or the rule of law in Uganda, natural or legal persons, entities and bodies associated with them, legal persons, entities or bodies owned or controlled by them,
(b) persons, entities and bodies benefiting from or supporting the quasi military regime of Mr. Yoweri Museveni and all the legal persons, entities and bodies contracted/ owned or controlled by them.

Also, we the petitioners, recalling the meaning and purpose of Article 215 of the Treaty that established the functioning of the European Union strongly calls for condemnation of the brutal repression taking place in Uganda after the bangled elections on 18th and 19th February 2016. We express our utmost dismay at the hot pursuit of executions, disappearances and crackdown on dissent and gagging of the media currently taking place in Uganda, in spite of all the appeals from local citizens, organisations and from the international community.
We solemnly request the European Union, Council of Europe, European Commission and European Parliamentary authorities to deeply take into account the hopes for freedom and democracy and liberty deeply felt by the Ugandan population as to undertake measures to downgrade and ultimately defeat the forces of doom currently hovering over Uganda. We wish to underline that this is an essential element for the pursuit of the policy of reforms and openness that has been advocated by the European Community and its Member States for a long time. We solemnly request that the European authorities consider instituting the following sanctions against members of the quasi military regime in Uganda, their relatives, friends and proxies:

We request that the issue of human rights violation in Uganda under the sheer occupation by an illegitimate group led by Mr. Yoweri Museveni be raised everywhere in all appropriate international fora;

We also ask for the commitment of independent observers to come back to Uganda and witness the wanton crackdown on the people of divergent political views, media gagging and the slowly unfolding atmosphere of genocide in the country.

We request that European Commission leads the way in calling for the  institution a commission of Inquiry into the killings in Kasese and prosecute those that killed innocent people, look into slavery claims that the government of Uganda either directly or indirectly involved in sending people in the middle East to work as slaves.
We also request that you put presure on Uganda to allow freedom of expression by repealing obnoxious laws like the POMB, anti-gay (LGBT) etc 

We call for the immidiate suspension of bilateral ministerial, diplomatic and high-level contacts with the quasi military regime in Uganda
We also request that the family of members states of the European Union postpones all cooperation projects in Uganda both current and future until the situation changes to the satisfaction of the international recognisable democratic standards;
We also request for cancellation of programmes of cultural, scientific and technical cooperation to only those activities that might maintain a meaning in the present circumstances;
We ask for the prolonging by the Member States of visas to all Ugandan students who wish it, so that they dont go back to legitimise a moribund and politically empty squatter regime led by Mr Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
Taking into account the climate of fear and uncertainty created in the economic field by the quasi military authorities, we request that the European Commission advocates the postponement of the examination of new requests by the for credit insurance and the postponement of the examination of new credits by Ugandan regime at the World Bank. This will help cripple the regime, making it completely useless and more succeptible to removal ultimately by any means.

We request that the European authorities put sanctions on all natural persons responsible for the violations of human rights or the repression of civil society and democratic opposition, or whose activities otherwise undermine democracy or the rule of law in Uganda, or any person associated with them namely spouses, siblings, children relatives and proxies;
We also request that the European authorities put travel bans on all natural persons benefiting from or supporting the quasi military regime of Yoweri Museveni. The names of such people appear in the attached (annex1)
We solemnly request for the freezing of funds and economic resources of
persons, entities or bodies responsible for violations of human rights or the repression of civil society and democratic opposition, or whose activities otherwise undermine democracy or the rule of law in Uganda, natural or legal persons, entities or bodies or proxies associated with them, legal persons, entities or bodies owned or controlled by them

(b) natural or legal persons, entities or bodies or proxies benefiting from or supporting the Yoweri Museveni regime, legal persons, entities or bodies owned or controlled by them.

We also pray that the European Commission/Council declares that it shall be prohibited to:
1 Sale, supply, transfer or export of arms and related material of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment and spare parts for the aforementioned, as well as equipment which might be used for internal repression, to Uganda by nationals of Member States or from the territories of Member States or using their flag vessels or aircraft, shall be prohibited whether originating or not in their territories.
2. Provide, directly or indirectly, technical assistance, brokering services or other services related to the items referred to in one 1 above or related to the provision, manufacture, maintenance and use of such items, to any natural or legal person, entity or body in, or for use in, Uganda.

We pray that the European Commission and indeed the entire body of the international community support the  invoking of the law, rules and regulation as to adopt restrictive measures against Uganda the way similar measures were adopted against Belarus under Common Position 2004/661/CFSP (1). The European Commission should show similar grave concern about the continued lack of respect for human rights, democracy and rule of law in Uganda, and that political prisoners, and activists and members of the media and public are released and left to freely live their lives without hindrances.

I thank you very much.