Skills shortage is a euphemism…. * By Tahir Sema Jimmy Manyi president of the Black management forum on the contrary… Read More »Skills shortage is a euphemism for we need more white people
12 September 2008
Press Release
Ugandan Intelligence Caught Out
Media Review Network (MRN) is outraged at the campaign of misinformation waged by the Ugandan security apparatus about the conditions of the arrest and detention of South Africans Haroon Saley and Mufti Hussain Bhayat in Uganda recently. MRN believes that the Ugandan Army, its military intelligence branch the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JAT) as well as other internal security organizations in Uganda, sought to deliberately deceive the families of the men, the South African embassy and government, and the South African public. This deception has led to misrepresentations about various aspects of the seizure of Bhayat and Saley in the Ugandan and South Africa media which MRN would like to clarify.
Firstly, Haroon Saley and Hussain Bhayat had already been allowed to enter Uganda legally at the Immigrations Section at Entebbe International Airport. They were questioned at length by airport security initially and were moved from the airport to a detention facility several hours after arrival at the airport. Media reports suggesting that the pair were arrested upon arrival in Uganda by members of JAT are wholly inaccurate.
Ugandan authorities told Saley and Bhayat that they were being taken to the South African embassy to resolve the situation. They were then driven to an unauthorized detention facility in Kololo. The men had been detained under false pretences.
Bhayat and Saley were not held at a “safe-house”, as reported in the media, but at a security facility in the up-market Kololo neighborhood of Kampala, which the JAT uses for interrogating and torturing detainees. This is an unauthorized facility, housing many other detainees, which is the site of numerous human rights abuses.
The pair was subject to inhumane treatment at the Kololo facility. Amongst others, the men were denied telephone access, not given food, sufficient running water or blankets. They were also not allowed a change of clothing until seven days later. Mufti Bhayat was put into a tiny, dark room measuring only 1,5 X 2m for two days, where he was not given food or water, and had no mattress or blanket. This is in stark contrast to the statements made by Ugandan Army spokesperson, Major Paddy Ankunda, who told various media that the men were being treated well.
In addition, MRN would like to reiterate that at no point during their eleven day ordeal were Bhayat and Saley ever informed of the reason of their arrest and detention. No charges were ever brought against the men, and the reason for their subsequent deportation still remains unclear.
The arrest and detention of Bhayat and Saley was also illegal since their captors and interrogators were in civilian clothes with no identifying insignia. Under Ugandan law, only the police are authorized to arrest suspects, and the only authorized places of detention for civilians are police and prison facilities. The facility at Kololo is an unauthorized, unlisted site. The arrest was also unconstitutional under Ugandan law since the pair was initially denied communication with their families, and access to legal counsel and South African consular services.
Iran says its failure to win a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council was an "obvious injustice."
Japan defeated Iran in a secret ballot Friday to secure the Asian seat on the Council. Japan won 158 votes while Iran got 32 votes.
The Security Council is U.N.’s powerhouse – it can impose sanctions and dispatch peacekeepers. Ten of it 15 seats are filled by regional groups for two-year stretches while five seats are held by veto-wielding permanent members.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi told reporters in Tehran today that there was "no logical reason" for Japan, which has served ten times on the Council, to "monopolize" that seat.
Iran is under U.N. sanctions for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program.
Sapa-AP
Iqbal Jassat
Chairman,
Media Review Network
Cell: 083 594 3749
E-mail: mrn_ij@telkomsa.net
Moulana Ighsaan Hendriks
President of the Muslim Judicial Council
Cape Town
South Africa
Cell: 083 384 6973
E-mail: mediadesk@mjc.org.za
Mr. President
We do not wish to remind you that South Africa is a sovereign state and its security services should not be held to ransom by any foreign government.
We address this open letter to you based on the possibility that you may be meeting Shimon Peres, President of Israel, during your visit to Davos, Switzerland, next week.
We are aware that he is keen to discuss the problem of issuing diplomatic passports to agents of Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security agency, who would be operating from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport.