Minister Odongo Will Release List of Missing Persons -Police

The Uganda Police force-UPF has said that the list of missing persons will be released by the Internal Affairs Minister General JeJe-Odongo to Parliament any time.  

Recently, President Museveni  said that there is no person who was missing but thay had rather been arrested by security organs as terrorists and directed the army and police to produce a list of those held in security detention places and make their names known to the public and relatives.  

The president said that missing person whom he called criminals had been arrested by operatives from the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence -CMI and the UPDF commando unit for allegedly participating in the November 18 and 19th protests as well as for threatening violence during the January 14 polls and after the announcing of the presidential election results.    

However, despite an order for security to release the list to members of the public, for over three weeks, nothing has been released. The UPDF claimed that the list had been handed over to the police leadership, but police declined to release the list following a misunderstanding.  

 Sources revealed to URN that the police top leadership failed to agree with the army on the number, identity and condition of the missing persons. “The list was presented, but the Police leadership also demanded to first have a look at these people and their condition before releasing the list to the public, but the army refused," a source in police said.  

Now today, Fred Enanga the police spokesperson said that there were circumstances that led to the delay in releasing the list to members of the public but noted that following a directive by the Speaker of Parliament, the Internal Affairs Minister would soon make the list public.  

“That instruction from Speaker Kadaga of last week still stands, the Minister met the various service chiefs and this list was forwarded to him. He will present it before parliament anytime  with all details," said Enanga

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  When asked on reports that the police failed to agree with the army on releasing the list that was meant to be presented in last week’s press briefing that was abruptly cancelled, Enanga said all questions would be answered by the Internal Affairs Minister.  

“The list mentions the number of people arrested, those charged and on remand plus those who were released. The minister will give all those details to parliament and the misunderstanding that happened. “I can’t usurp the powers of the Internal Affairs Minister because he has the list and he will present it before parliament," Enanga explained.  

  The development comes as relatives ofthe missing persons continue to express concern over the whereabouts of their loved ones. Many have expressed fear that the condition of their loved ones is not good as they suspect that they could have tortured during and after arrest.

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