Prime
Museveni defiant as US tighten sanctions
President Museveni criticises the West for what he deems disrespect towards Uganda’s sovereignty. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- In less than a decade, the United States through a sanctions regime, has forcefully asserted its will over the resistant Ugandan regime which it accuses of human rights violations
Prisons chief Johnson Byabashaija on Friday joined the ranks of a few high-profile Ugandan officials publicly sanctioned by American authorities with hundreds more, including legislators, also placed under restrictions.
In less than a decade, the United States through a sanctions regime, has forcefully asserted its will over the resistant Ugandan regime which it accuses of human rights violations.
Just hours before US authorities unveiled sanctions against Mr Byabashaija, the Commissioner General of Prisons, President Museveni, in a State House address, criticised the Americans and other Western powers for what he deemed disrespect towards Uganda’s sovereignty.
In addressing the contentious anti-homosexuality law, the President assured Ugandans not to yield to intimidation, underscoring that external pressures would not alter their stance on the matter.
“Don’t be intimidated by all those fellows. If there’s someone who doesn’t want to respect our sovereignty, we pray for them, they can go. We have the capacity, we don’t lack anything, the economy is growing so we shall be able to sustain ourselves,” he said.
“I don’t want to go to America. I go to America as a favour that I have come to visit you,” the President added.
Byabashaija woes
In a statement issued on December 8, the US Department of the Treasury asserted that since 2005, when Mr Byabashaija became the prisons boss, members of the Uganda Prisons Service (UPS) have been involved in cases of torture and other serious human rights abuses.
“Prisoners have reported being tortured and beaten by Uganda Prisons Service staff and by fellow prisoners at the direction of UPS staff. Members of vulnerable groups, including government critics and members of Uganda’s LGBTQI+ community, have been beaten and held without access to legal counsel” the December 8 statement reads in part.
“For example, in a 2020 case, the UPS denied a group of LGBTQI+ persons access to their lawyers and members of the group reportedly endured physical abuse, including a forced anal examination and scalding,” it adds.
Mr Byabashaija, according to US authorities, is being designated due to his status as a foreign individual who currently holds or has held a leadership or official position in an entity, including government entities, which have been involved in, or whose members have been engaged in significant human rights abuses during the leader’s or official’s tenure.
Mr Byabashaija is among 19 individuals who have been sanctioned in connection to human rights abuses across nine countries. Additionally, two individuals have been sanctioned under the US Department of State’s counterterrorism authority.
As a result of the sanctions, Mr Byabashaija and members of his family face domestic and international consequences, including asset freezes, travel restrictions, prohibitions on transactions, including mobile money, visa restrictions, among other things.
Visa restrictions
His sanctioning comes just days after the US Department of State announced a visa restriction policy on Ugandans, particularly government officials believed to be involved in human rights violations and the repression of marginalised groups in the country.
According to a December 4 statement issued by US Secretary of State, Mr Anthony Blinken, these sanctions represent an expansion of the 2021 restrictions targeting those undermining the democratic process in Uganda.
Mr Blinken urged the Ugandan government to enhance its record and hold accountable those responsible for flawed electoral processes, violence, and intimidation.
Among other things, he disclosed that environmental activists, human rights defenders, journalists, LGBTQI+ persons, and civil society organisers have continued to experience a shrinking democratic arena due to threats and repressions by some Ugandan officials.
The US press statement also notes that immediate family members of persons affected by the travel restrictions may also be subject to these visa exclusions.
“The United States stands by the Ugandan people and remains committed to working together to advance democracy, human rights, public health, and mutual prosperity. I once again strongly encourage the government of Uganda to make concerted efforts to uphold democracy and to respect and protect human rights so that we may sustain the decades-long partnership between our countries that has benefited Americans and Ugandans alike,” Mr Blinken said. This is not the first time for the US to issue travel bans or announce sanctions against a targeted group of Ugandan officials over undermining democratic processes in the country.
Months after the 2021 general election, without naming the said officials, the US issued similar travel bans on those who were said to be behind the gross human atrocities committed during the election periods.
Previous sanctions
Uganda is seeing a wave of sanctions with the United States taking the lead.
The European Union, the United Kingdom, international agencies like the World Bank, the African Development Bank have all sanctioned Ugandans in the last decade.
On December 7, 2021 the US Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on Maj GenAbel Kandiho, the then commander of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) over alleged human rights abuses committed under his watch.
Earlier, the US government through its treasury department, had on September 13, 2019, imposed sanctions on former Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura for reportedly engaging in corruption and human rights abuses.
The US government claimed, for example, that Kayihura directly supervised the torture of prisoners at the Nalufenya Police Special investigations facility in Jinja.
In August last 2020, the US imposed financial sanctions and visa restrictions on former judges Moses Mukiibi and Wilson Musalu Musene and two lawyers, Dorah Mirembe and Patrick Ecobu over their role in an international adoption scam of more than 30 Ugandan children.
The US State Department alleged that the four and their American partners, who were charged in court, engaged in corruption to arrange the adoptions “by unwitting parents in the United States”. Some Ugandans, including Amigo Kibirige (2019), Elias Segujja, Muhammed, Amisi Kasadha, Kayiira Muhammad and James Nyakuni have been sanctioned under the US’s Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
