The Mukono Municipality Member of Parliament Betty Nambooze has asked the UPDF Chief of Defense Forces (CDF), Gen David Muhoozi to resign over the army’s continued brutality against Ugandans.
Gen Muhoozi on Thursday apologized to the media fraternity and pledged that the army will clear the medical bills of journalists that were assaulted by their officers on Wednesday.
Addressing the media on Thursday in Kampala, Gen Muhoozi promised that they are going to take action against the errant UPDF officers who meted brutality against journalists as they covered National Unity Platform (NUP) president, Robert Kyagulanyi who was delivering his human rights violation petition to United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) offices in Kololo, Kampala.
“That incident is regrettable and I want to extend my apologies to those friends of ours who were assaulted. Joseph Sabiti of NBS, Rashida Nakaayi from Galaxy FM, Timothy Murungi from Vision group, the exercise exhibited was not sanctioned nor were they justified. The UPDF cares and recognizes the importance of the smooth partnership with the media and of course the population. Therefore, we would be the last people to target a journalist or anyone for that matter in an illegitimate way. Appropriate actions will be taken against the identifiable culprits,” he assured the media.
However, according to Nambooze, a mere apology is not a solution to curb the increasing military brutality on Ugandans. She said the better way would be for the CDF and other responsible parties to resign because they has failed to rein on the men and women in uniform.
“The CDF has been addressing us and I love his humbleness and timely apology. Now, General CDF, it’s quite good to apologize, treat and in my opinion even compensate the journalists who were hurt during the scuffle. Now I want to know what about the ordinary people….were ordinary people supposed to be beaten….where is their apology, who is going to treat and compensate them?” the legislator said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
“Mr CDF someone has to resign…..to resign in shame,an early retirement for hon or her….The court martial sitting to try these criminals…the red top military police officers who assaulted our people must be punished truly…..No tricks this time. We are not taking this lightly….Uganda is our country and we must be respected. By the way you stand on the top of this list of those who should resign….or any person you sent to command this attack and advise him to resign. We demand that the court martial this time sit at a community centre and let all People have an opportunity to witness Short this your apology will total up to nothing.”
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