Government will not heed to the calls by the Human Rights Watch that an independent investigation be held to establish circumstances under which over 100 people were killed in the November 26th clashes in Kasese.
UPDF Spokesperson Maj Richard Karemire told the press at Media Center this afternoon that their record establishes that a total of 103 deaths were registered.
91 of these were male & 12 female, 16 of whom were Uganda Police Force officers. He explained that a total of 51 bodies were unclaimed & were subsequently buried in a public cemetery in Kasese.
This morning, a report by Human rights watch called for an independent investigation into killings.
The watchdog has further urged that the commanding officers of the military operation which saw the Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere’s palace raided and ravaged step down pending the investigations.
However, Karemire says the report ignores the death and casualties the militias inflicted on members of security forces and civilians. He adds that as opposed to the HRW report that 16 children were killed during the operation, there is no evidence to back what he terms as falsehoods.
He says that government challenges the authors of the report to mention the families of missing persons and the alleged dead children. “They should also provide evidence of deliberate & systematic targeting of children and women” he said.
On 27/11/16 security forces raided the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu palace in Kasese, recovering a number of petrol bombs, Machetes and Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu uniforms. Guns recovered from the palace were the same that had been earlier stolen.
The raid came after militias from Rwenzururu, using their Prime Minister’s Office AS A Base, the carried out simultaneous attacks on police posts like at Hima, Bwera, Maliba, Mubuku, Buhuhira and Bugoye, killing 16 Police officers and made off with weapons on 26/11/16.
