By Alex Mugisha
apearlnews.com
Security operatives have this afternoon arrested the Executive Director of the National Women Lawyers and Women Defenders Coalition (NAWOLADEC), Mary Akut Ntangnya, and other coordinators from the NGO’s headquarters in Mbale town, where they had organized a press conference.
The activists were taken to an unknown location after being arrested by non-uniformed security officers who bundled them in a numberless van commonly known as a drone, having found them holding a press conference while addressing journalists on the peril of the women in Northern Uganda who are alleged to be facing suffering inflicted on them by the Ugandan Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) which have been deployed in the area to pursue the perpetrators of cattle rustling.
Two weeks ago, social media was awash with a video clip indicating three women in chains being beaten and raped by soldiers in security attire. After this, the National Women Lawyers and Women Defenders Coalition (NAWOLADEC), an NGO defending women, came up quickly to appeal to the government to punish the soldiers, and the director ended up holding several radio talk shows on local radio stations to condemn the acts and ask local leaders to protect women. NAWOLADEC went ahead to petition the attorney general and the speaker of parliament on the matter to seek justice for these vulnerable women.
The Director of the organization, Ms. Mary Akut, allegedly started receiving intimidation from government officials, especially security forces, whom she believed are the ones who are perpetuating rape, defilement, and abuse of women’s peace and rights.
Efforts to talk to the head of security in Mbale town to know the whereabouts of the women defenders belonging to the National Women Lawyers and Defenders Coalition (NAWOLADEC) were still futile as his telephone contacts were switched off, but it is suspected that they were taken to one of the government’s safe houses, which are believed by the public to be torture centers for human rights activists and government critics.
