CMI arrests are spreading terror among Gulu residents
Jun 15, 2009
Alfred Olanya Lubel was my teacher at Tochi Primary School in Gulu in the 1970s. I remember him as a young teacher who was particularly skilled in penmanship and calligraphy. I recall pestering him to teach me penmanship and the Gothic alphabet. We later
Norbert Mao
Alfred Olanya Lubel was my teacher at Tochi Primary School in Gulu in the 1970s. I remember him as a young teacher who was particularly skilled in penmanship and calligraphy. I recall pestering him to teach me penmanship and the Gothic alphabet. We later met again when I was seeking election to the Constituent Assembly in 1994.
By the time I became Gulu District chairman, he had been appointed parish chief of Alokolum in Ongako sub-county. He was no longer a teacher in the strict sense but I was always proud to introduce him in public gatherings as my teacher.
In all my association with him I never ever felt that he would come to the adverse attention of the feared Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI). Readers can only imagine my shock when his son Jimmy Lubel called me last week on the night of Tuesday, June 9 saying heavily armed people travelling in a UPDF vehicle had arrested his father.
He was sitting at a shop front at Lacor Trading Centre, opposite Lacor Hospital, having a drink with friends when a speeding vehicle screeched to a halt and gun-totting men jumped out, dragged him at gun-point, dumped him in the UPDF pick-up and sped off. Many people who witnessed the incident called me to inform me. They wondered why soldiers of the UPDF were engaging in arrests in a manner reminiscent of the dark days of Idi Amin.
There is a police post adjacent to the gate of Lacor Hospital and when the shocked residents inquired about the fate of their colleague, the police said this was a CMI operation and they were not at liberty to disclose any further details!
Bitter residents continued to call me through the night saying the conduct of those who effected the arrest was opening old wounds and was likely to undermine civil-military relations. The next morning I called Deputy CMI boss, Lt. Col. Tumwesigye and complained to him about these arrests.
As District Chairman and member of the District Security Committee, I expect to be briefed about any security operations in the district. Secondly, if there is any ground for arresting any citizen of Uganda, the arrest has to be effected in accordance with the law.
All suspects have rights under the law and I know of no circumstance that would have warranted the humiliating and violent manner in which those who are supposed to be custodians of the law abducted Alfred Olanya Lubel.
I told Lt. Col. Tumwesigye that it is unacceptable for the CMI to kidnap citizens of Uganda. Alfred Olanya Lubel is a civil servant and up to now his superiors have not been informed of his whereabouts. Neither has his family been told of his fate. But he is not the only victim of this wave of state terrorism being orchestrated by the CMI. On March 6, one Patrick Komakech, an ex-LRA abductee who has benefited from the Amnesty Act was also kidnapped from Kampala by the CMI. His family members do not know where he is.
However, the Hoima mayor who was also dumped in one of the illegal CMI detention facilities reported that Komakech was being held incommunicado by the CMI. He reported that he saw him bound hand and foot and that he was being subjected to frequent physical torture. In March, one Okot Alex Langwen from Gulu, and Patrick Otim from Pader were also kidnapped at gunpoint by the CMI.
On June 1, one Otim who a student of motor vehicle mechanics, at the Comboni Vocational Institute in Gulu, was riding to school when a speeding pick-up pulled up alongside him and two gun-wielding men jumped out and forced him into the vehicle. None of his relatives knows where he is being held.
The total number of people reportedly kidnapped at gun- pint by the CMI now number seven. In my conversation with Lt. Col. Tumwesigye, I told him that even though there may be grounds for carrying out these arrests, the manner in which they were being done was crude, violent and traumatising to the victims and witnesses of these kidnaps. Article 23 of the Constitution of Uganda bars the detention of people in places unauthorised by law. It also requires anybody affecting any arrest to disclose the reasons for detention and also inform the arrested person that he or she has a right to the services of a lawyer of his or her choice.
The same provision requires a person to be produced in court within 48 hours and that relatives shall be informed and allowed to visit the detained person.
The CMI is operating in total disregard of these provisions of the law. As a result, a state of fear has engulfed Gulu and state informers are busy reporting on people who they deem for whatever reason to be security risks.
Gulu residents now feel like the proverbial drunkard’s cockerel. Uncertain of when its drunken master may decide to slash its throat, it lives in fear. But sooner or later fear is drowned by hatred. And when that happens anything is possible in the name of self-preservation.
I do not know what noble objectives the CMI is trying to achieve by its current conduct but I dare say they risk provoking fearsome reactions from a populace that is tired of being pushed around.
In the words of Pierre Bungener: “There are thresholds which when crossed, condemn any cause. When this situation is reached, it is indeed a sign that the cause has ceased to be a good one. Man, by becoming like an animal, cannot claim to serve manâ€.
Alfred Olanya Lubel was my teacher at Tochi Primary School in Gulu in the 1970s. I remember him as a young teacher who was particularly skilled in penmanship and calligraphy. I recall pestering him to teach me penmanship and the Gothic alphabet. We later met again when I was seeking election to the Constituent Assembly in 1994.
By the time I became Gulu District chairman, he had been appointed parish chief of Alokolum in Ongako sub-county. He was no longer a teacher in the strict sense but I was always proud to introduce him in public gatherings as my teacher.
In all my association with him I never ever felt that he would come to the adverse attention of the feared Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI). Readers can only imagine my shock when his son Jimmy Lubel called me last week on the night of Tuesday, June 9 saying heavily armed people travelling in a UPDF vehicle had arrested his father.
He was sitting at a shop front at Lacor Trading Centre, opposite Lacor Hospital, having a drink with friends when a speeding vehicle screeched to a halt and gun-totting men jumped out, dragged him at gun-point, dumped him in the UPDF pick-up and sped off. Many people who witnessed the incident called me to inform me. They wondered why soldiers of the UPDF were engaging in arrests in a manner reminiscent of the dark days of Idi Amin.
There is a police post adjacent to the gate of Lacor Hospital and when the shocked residents inquired about the fate of their colleague, the police said this was a CMI operation and they were not at liberty to disclose any further details!
Bitter residents continued to call me through the night saying the conduct of those who effected the arrest was opening old wounds and was likely to undermine civil-military relations. The next morning I called Deputy CMI boss, Lt. Col. Tumwesigye and complained to him about these arrests.
As District Chairman and member of the District Security Committee, I expect to be briefed about any security operations in the district. Secondly, if there is any ground for arresting any citizen of Uganda, the arrest has to be effected in accordance with the law.
All suspects have rights under the law and I know of no circumstance that would have warranted the humiliating and violent manner in which those who are supposed to be custodians of the law abducted Alfred Olanya Lubel.
I told Lt. Col. Tumwesigye that it is unacceptable for the CMI to kidnap citizens of Uganda. Alfred Olanya Lubel is a civil servant and up to now his superiors have not been informed of his whereabouts. Neither has his family been told of his fate. But he is not the only victim of this wave of state terrorism being orchestrated by the CMI. On March 6, one Patrick Komakech, an ex-LRA abductee who has benefited from the Amnesty Act was also kidnapped from Kampala by the CMI. His family members do not know where he is.
However, the Hoima mayor who was also dumped in one of the illegal CMI detention facilities reported that Komakech was being held incommunicado by the CMI. He reported that he saw him bound hand and foot and that he was being subjected to frequent physical torture. In March, one Okot Alex Langwen from Gulu, and Patrick Otim from Pader were also kidnapped at gunpoint by the CMI.
On June 1, one Otim who a student of motor vehicle mechanics, at the Comboni Vocational Institute in Gulu, was riding to school when a speeding pick-up pulled up alongside him and two gun-wielding men jumped out and forced him into the vehicle. None of his relatives knows where he is being held.
The total number of people reportedly kidnapped at gun- pint by the CMI now number seven. In my conversation with Lt. Col. Tumwesigye, I told him that even though there may be grounds for carrying out these arrests, the manner in which they were being done was crude, violent and traumatising to the victims and witnesses of these kidnaps. Article 23 of the Constitution of Uganda bars the detention of people in places unauthorised by law. It also requires anybody affecting any arrest to disclose the reasons for detention and also inform the arrested person that he or she has a right to the services of a lawyer of his or her choice.
The same provision requires a person to be produced in court within 48 hours and that relatives shall be informed and allowed to visit the detained person.
The CMI is operating in total disregard of these provisions of the law. As a result, a state of fear has engulfed Gulu and state informers are busy reporting on people who they deem for whatever reason to be security risks.
Gulu residents now feel like the proverbial drunkard’s cockerel. Uncertain of when its drunken master may decide to slash its throat, it lives in fear. But sooner or later fear is drowned by hatred. And when that happens anything is possible in the name of self-preservation.
I do not know what noble objectives the CMI is trying to achieve by its current conduct but I dare say they risk provoking fearsome reactions from a populace that is tired of being pushed around.
In the words of Pierre Bungener: “There are thresholds which when crossed, condemn any cause. When this situation is reached, it is indeed a sign that the cause has ceased to be a good one. Man, by becoming like an animal, cannot claim to serve manâ€.