Bobi Wine’s U.S. and U.K Supporters Call for Visa Ban on Uganda Officials Including Gen. Museveni

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U.K. lawmaker Williams addressed Ugandan demonstrators in London.

Bobi Wine’s U.S. Lawyer at a press conference tomorrow in Washington will call for a U.S. visa ban on Ugandan officials for human rights abuses.

Separately in London a U.K. Member of Parliament has called for a visa ban on Gen. Yuoweri Museveni, Uganda’s dictator of 32 years. The lawmaker, Paul Williams also called for action by the Commonwealth and said Museveni was a “military” ruler in civilian clothes.

The last time the U.K. considered banning a Uganda official was after the Commonwealth Conference in Uganda in 2007 when foreign minister Sam Kutesa allegedly was one of several officials who stole up to $150 million from funds designated for the meeting. U.S. ambassador to Uganda Jerry Lanier also recommended a visa bar on Kutesa in connection with the theft, at the time.

http://www.blackstarnews.com/global-politics/africa/uk-wanted-visa-ban-on-kutesa-described-by-us-ambassador-as-egregiously

Ironically, both Kutesa and Gen. Museveni are implicated in a U.S. bribe-and-money-laundering case now being tried in federal district court in Manhattan.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/head-organization-backed-chinese-energy-conglomerate-and-former-foreign-minister

In London Williams had joined Ugandans chanting “Museveni must go” who held a protest and delivered to 10 Downing Street, the official residence of Prime Minister Theresa May, a petition signed bt 5,000 demanding U.K. sanctions against the Museveni regime.

In Washington, Bobi Wine’s U.S. lawyer Robert Amsterdam issued a statement announcing their joint appearance 10 A.M. September 6, at a news conference at the National Press Club.

Amsterdam has called for greater international pressure to protect human rights in Uganda, and called for sanctions against Ugandan officials involved in rights abuses including the torture of Bobi Wine. The U.S. law he’s cited, the Global Magnitsky Act includes visa bans and asset seizures.

The statement said Bobi Wine will “address his current condition after suffering torture and abuse at the hands of Ugandan security officers after his August 14th arrest and the treason charges which followed.”

The statement issued by Amsterdam reads, “Already a widely known Afropop celebrity in Uganda, the 36-year-old Bobi Wine was elected as an independent Member of Parliament for Kyadondo East in 2017. As an outspoken critic of President Yoweri Museveni, Bobi has captivated the nation’s youth, many of whom have felt excluded and alienated by Uganda’s political establishment.

His popularity has allowed the opposition to capture numerous seats, including most recently in Arua by-election with the victory of Kassiano Wadri, who defeated a candidate backed by President Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

However immediately following this election, violent clashes broke out. Protesters were accused of throwing stones at the president’s motorcade, while later officers from the Special Forces Command (SFC), the secret service, attacked opposition supporters and arrested at least 33 people. That evening, Bobi’s driver Yasin Kawuma was shot and killed by state security officers. The former pop star was then arrested the next morning on a trumped-up gun charge, which would later be dropped before he was re-arrested for treason.

While detained by SFC and police, Bobi Wine says he was subjected to extreme abuse and torture. According to his own account, “they beat me, punched me, and kicked me with their boots. No part of my body was spared. They hit my eyes, mouth and nose. They hit my elbows and my knees.” By the end of this abuse, Bobi was unable to stand on his own power, with significant injuries for which he is being treated by US doctors.

Though he was eventually released on bail and allowed to travel for medical treatment, Bobi Wine still faces a treason charge that carries the death penalty.”

The Uganda regime gets over $1 billion annually in U.S. taxpayers’ dollars in the form of financial and military support.

It has recently escalated state violence against opposition leaders including Members of Parliament since losing a by-election August 15 for a Parliamentary seat in Arua. Two Members of Parliament, Bobi Wine and Francis Zaake were severely beaten and tortured.
Others were brutally arrested in addition to more than 30 of their supporters. All face treason charges for allegedly incited violence that led to the stoning of dictator Museveni’s presidential convoy.

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