Ugandan served 27 years in Comoros jail for no offence

Aug 01, 2010

A 48-year-old man from western Uganda, Sulaiman Bulangi, is stranded at Arua Police station. He went to Arua to look for his sister, Hadija Nyakato, after being released from prison in the Comoros Islands.

By Stephen Dradenya

A 48-year-old man from western Uganda, Sulaiman Bulangi, is stranded at Arua Police station. He went to Arua to look for his sister, Hadija Nyakato, after being released from prison in the Comoros Islands.

Bulangi was born in Ruti village in Rwampara sub-county, Mbarara district. His sister is said to have got married in Arua or the neighbouring districts.

The police in Arua say they do not have the resources to look after him. “We are finding it difficult to keep him because we don’t know whether the sister is alive and residing in West Nile,” the regional police spokesperson, Philip Mukasa said.

Bulangi’s parents were Saidi Bamuruho, a Munyankole and Mariam Nyinamugore, a Tusti refugee from Rwanda. They are both dead.

Bulangi’s troubles began in 1981 when he was working with Quariam Fisheries, a Canadian divers company on Lake Albert. As a teenager, he was very excited when he was chosen to work in the company’s external branch in the Comoros Islands, in the Indian Ocean.

“The company took us to Comoros but after a few months, we were arrested on suspicion of being US spies. We were five from Uganda, some Tanzanians and Libyans. We were arrested by the then military intelligence of Comoros, which was under the leadership of Ahmed Abdallah who ruled from 1978 to 1989,” he narrates.

They were charged with treason and imprisoned in 1982. For 27 years, Bulangi was behind bars untill August 2009 when the new president, Mohamed Abdallah Sambi, freed them on presidential pardon.

“We were sorted by country of origin. I was the only surviving Ugandan. The four died in jail. They handed me over to the International Red Cross which took us to Madagascar for about a week,” he says.

Bulangi adds that he was then shipped via Dar es Salaam, where he left his Tanzanian colleagues, to Mombasa where he was handed over to the Kenya Red Cross Society who took him to the Ugandan high commission in Nairobi.

“The high commissioner wrote a letter to the immigration officer at Malaba to allow me in Uganda,” he said.
On April 1, Bulangi reached his home village, Ruti, only to find strangers on the land where he lived as a boy. “They told me my father had sold the land to them and shifted to Luweero district.”

He traced the place in Luweero where his parents had resettled, only to discover that they had died many years earlier. His only brother, had died too.

“The occupants of the land showed me the graves. They told me my only surviving sister, Nyakato, sold the land and left to get married in Arua,” Bulangi said.

On July 13, Bulangi embarked on the long walk to Arua. “I had no money. I walked from Luweero and reached Kiryadongo on July 17, where the Police helped me board a vehicle to Arua town,” he said. “I reported to the Police station and met the Resident District Commissioner, Rtd. Maj. Ibrahim Abiriga.”

Since then the authorities have been trying in vain to trace Nyakato in Arua. The Police and Muslim community in Arua have tried to help, but they have not been successful.
Meanwhile, Abiriga has given him a letter introducing him as harmless citizen of Uganda who needs assistance. He said the letter would protect Bulangi from being mistaken for a spy or terrorist.

Asked what he would do if he failed to get Nyakato, Bulangi said, he would look for a job, probably as a cattle keeper. “I am still strong. I will ask the authorities to provide me with a letter and transport to go back. I can work until I establish my own home,” he said.

A milk vendor in Arua town from western Uganda is currently looking after Bulangi as he tries to trace his sister.

The RDC promised that his office would provide transport for Bulangi back to Luweero district if he failed to find Nyakato. “My counterpart in Luweero can take charge, resettle him and even give him cows to restart his life,” he said.

Bulangi has also been given a clearance letter from the Arua District Internal Security Officer, David Katabishwa.

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