At least two UPDF soldiers are being tried in the Court Martial for allegedly exploiting women sexually during their tour of duty in Central Africa Republic (CAR) to capture elusive LRA leader Joseph Kony.
Army publicist Brig Richard Karemire on Monday afternoon identified two of the misbehaved soldiers as warrant officer Robert Masiko and lance corporal Casiano Angzuzi.
“Both will face the full wrath of the law. Sexual exploitation is such a huge case and comes with huge penalty,” he said in his calm voice.
Karemire’s revelation comes high on heels of human rights damning dossier implicating UPDF troops in sexually abusing 13 women since 2015.
“Human Rights Watch interviewed a total of 13 women and 3 girls in early 2017, who described exploitation or abuse since 2010 by Ugandan soldiers in the south-eastern town of Obo, where Ugandan forces were based, and heard credible accounts of other cases. Two of the women were girls when the exploitation or abuse took place. Two women and one girl said that soldiers threatened reprisals if they told Ugandan and United Nations investigators about the abuse,” the report reads in part.
“They were placed under investigations and are currently under trial,” Karemire added.
He further acknowledged that, “there could be some bad apples, but be assured they will not dent our military’s good works. The suspects will face the military court martial once we are done but that has to involve rehabilitating them. If it is true they committed sexual crimes, they will be charged and prosecuted.”
The report also indicates that 3 girls faced the wrath of these heartless soldiers.
“Jolie Nadia Ipangba said she was 16 when a Ugandan soldier pursued a relationship with her. Ms. Ipangba, who is now 18, said the soldier told her he was looking for a woman to have a child for him and promised to take care of the mother. However, a month after she got pregnant, he was back home in Uganda,” the report says.
Same old accusation
The current sexual exploitation claims follow similar allegations by published by BBC early this year to which Brigadier Karemire Uganda’s own investigations tagged as unfounded.
BBC in January aired and published on its platforms stories of a one, 13-year-old Eloise, who claims she is mothering a nine-month-old child allegedly sired by a Ugandan soldier, and another 14-year-old Mirie, also from CAR, who dreads to recall the day she was allegedly raped by a UPDF soldier.
Eloise told the BBC that when she was 12, a Ugandan soldier, deployed to protect her town, Obo ironically attacked her.
“My mother sent me to the market to buy something,” she said. “On the way, a Ugandan soldier grabbed me. He dragged me to a nearby lodge [hotel] and raped me.”
On the other account, Mirie has this to say: “I was going to the field to work and on my way, I was grabbed by a Ugandan. He was violent, he attacked me and he raped me. When I think about this, it hurts me. I didn’t expect it at all. “If I had a knife or machete I would have tried to attack him.”
That all UPDF soldiers set be back home from the Central African Republic within a few weeks, Brigadier Karemire says this Human Rights Watch report has no significant bearing with the withdrawal. “We could not control the timing ofcourse. Everybody knows the role UPDF has played in CAR, keeping peace, protecting the civilians and weakening the Lord’s Resistance Army.”
