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| Ugandan Prison Officers Urge Government to Abolish Death Penalty |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 02/24/2003 |
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Ugandan prison officers have urged the government to abolish the death penalty and have forwarded their proposals to end capital punishment to a commission reviewing the East African nation's constitution, a prisons service spokeswoman said recently. The Prisons Department handed its recommendations to the Constitutional Review Commission on February 13, arguing that it would be better to rehabilitate prisoners instead of executing them, Mary Kaddu said. 'We are proposing life imprisonment instead of executions. It's a very traumatizing job (carrying out executions),' she said. 'You have been with someone for 17 years and you have created a relationship with him or her. When that person is executed, you become affected mentally and morally.' There are 354 people on death row in Uganda, and 38 people have been executed - by hanging - in the last 10 years, Kaddu said. The last executions took place in 1999 when 12 people were hanged. Those convicted of murder, rape, treason or armed robbery with violence can be sentenced to death in the East African nation. President Yoweri Museveni set up the Constitutional Review Commission in 2001 to see what changes were needed in the current constitution which introduced by in 1989. Under the constitution, Uganda has a 'no-party' political system in which political parties can exist but cannot carry out political activities, particularly fund-raising, recruiting and campaigning. Parliament passed a law relaxing the rules last May, but party activities will remain severely restricted until at least 2004. Museveni, who seized power in 1986 after leading a five-year bush war, blames party politics for fomenting ethnic and religious tensions that led to 20 years of war and chaos in Uganda. The review commission is supposed to gather opinions on the constitution from individuals, non-governmental groups and state institutions such as the Prisons Department. It is supposed to draft a report on its findings which will be presented to parliament to debate later this year. |
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