Gov't halts mass burial of Kasese clashes victims

 Kasese district chairperson consoles a grief-striken woman. Photos by John Thawite

Government has advised against the mass burials of the people who died in the weekend Kasese clashes between the Rwenzururu royal guards and security forces.

A meeting chaired by the RDC at the Kasese Municipal Council hall Thursday, Subcounty leaders proposed that since they bodies were decomposing fast, they should be buried in a mass grave.

However, addressing some of the grief-stricken mourners who had gathered at the Kasese Municipal Council mortuary in Kasese town, the Assistant Inspector general of police Asuman Mugenyi, said the dead deserve a descent burial.

"We advise you to first exhaust indentifying your relatives from among the bodied at this mortuary," he said, explaining that all the bodies which had been kept in various parts of the Rwenzori sub-region, were now at the mortuary.

He said each was bearing an identification tag after police pathologists completed the postmortems, asking the bereaved to check.

"Even after the remaining bodies can no longer be identified, we shall ensure each is buried in its own grave so that when people who turn up later looking for their relatives they can access the remains," Mugenyi said as the restless mourners sobbed around.

The affected families also faulted police for producing a list of suspects without their places of residence making it hard to identify because most Bakonzo bear same names.