US lawmakers have focused their recent anger against Uganda and the ruling NRM government's use of force to slow the march of the coronavirus and in the process restrict freedom of association and expression during the electoral period.
They have written to US Secretary of State Mike R. Pompeo urging the US administration to conjure up a more muscular response to human rights abuses in Uganda and the country's slide toward authoritarianism.
In an apparent response to that plea, Mike R. Pompeo in a recent tweet, said Uganda was a long-standing partner and Washington expected its partners to hold free and fair elections.
"We are paying close attention to the actions of individuals who seek to impede the ongoing democratic process," he said.
Pompeo said, the U.S will not hesitate to consider serious consequences for those responsible for election-related violence and repression. Last Tuesday, the Democratic chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel, and the most senior Republican on the panel, Michael McCaul, asked the U.S. government to punish seven top Ugandan security officials under the Global Magnitsky Act for their role in rights abuses.
They said Uganda was sliding toward authoritarianism as the country gets closer to a general election on January 14 in which incumbent, President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled since 1986, is seeking sixth term. In the letter to Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the congressmen said Museveni's government had a history of repression including attacks on independent media, arrests and torture of opposition leaders and supporters, and a failure to prosecute those responsible for extrajudicial killings.
"Diplomatic rhetoric alone has had little impact on President Museveni's behaviour. Instead, he has further consolidated power while preventing the emergence of a viable democratic opposition," the letter said.
The letter is asking for seven military officials to be personally sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky sanctions programme including; Gen. Peter Elwelu (Commander of Land Forces, for his role in 2016 killings in Kasese), Maj. Gen. James Birungi (Commander of the President Museveni's elite force – the Special Forces Command [SFC]), Maj. Gen. Don William Nabasa (former SFC Commander), Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho (Director, Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence [CMI]), Maj. Gen. Steven Sabiiti Muzeyi (Deputy Inspector of General of Police), Commissioner of Police Frank Mwesigwa and Col. Chris Serunjogi Ddamulira, the Director of Crime Intelligence in the Uganda Police Force.
Interviewed for a comment, the minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Okello Oryem, denied that Museveni's government condones violence and rights abuses and said an investigation was underway into opposition protests and deaths last month. What sanctions mean?
When the US imposed sanctions under the Global Magnitsky sanctions programme against former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Gen Kale Kayihura last year, his larger-than-life persona diminished. He lost his freedom to roam the globe and his personal wealth stashed abroad was frozen.
Kayihura and his immediate family members were sanctioned and designated under the Magnitsky Act. That simply meant they can not be issued with a United States visa and will have their properties, which he fully owns, or partly owns with others in the USA frozen.
In the statement by the US Department of Treasury, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Kayihura was accused of having been a leader or official of a police force that engaged in or whose members have engaged in serious human rights abuse against Ugandan citizens, as well as for his involvement in corruption.
The statement also said that all property and interests in property of Kayihura, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 per cent or more by him alone or with other designated persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.
OFAC's regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. Kayihura who was Uganda's longest-serving police boss for 12 years was sacked in March 2018 and replaced by his deputy Martins Okoth Ochola.
The seven individuals When US secretary of state says "We are paying close attention to the actions of individuals who seek to impede the ongoing democratic process," and warns of dire consequences for those responsible for election-related violence and repression, it simply means the seven individuals have come full circle under the watchful eye of Ameri-can authorities and may be sanctioned if found culpable.
Before the sanctions drop investigations must be done. This means the US government investigates the individuals for alleged human rights abuses while at the same time monitors their movements and gathers any information regarding assets and dealings both in Uganda and abroad.
On the surface, a sanctioned individual under the Magnitsky Act is barred entry into the US and any assets he or she owns there are frozen. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, The Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, was a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009 and also to grant permanent normal trade relations status to Russia.
Since 2016, the bill or Act, which applies globally, authorizes the U.S. government to sanction those who it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the US. But the law has in some form or shape been embraced by the Euro-pean Union.
Effective December 21 2017, US President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13818, which was the first implementation of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act under which the U.S. government imposed sanctions against 13 individuals described as "human rights abusers, kleptocrats, and corrupt actors."
The individuals sanctioned included; Yahya Jammeh, former president of The Gambia, and Roberto Jose Rivas Reyes, president of Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council. An additional 39 affiliated companies and individuals were also sanctioned by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
According to The Economist, Dan Gertler, an "Israeli mining billionaire" who is a longtime close friend of Joseph Kabila, former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for decades, was also listed in President Trump's EO Annex and placed on the OFAC financial sanctions list.
In March 2019, the European Parliament passed a resolution 447–70 in favor of passing a Magnitsky Act for the European Union. On July 6 2020, United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Domi-nic Raab announced the first sanctions under a law similar to the Global Magnitsky Act, where 47 individuals came under travel restrictions and asset freezes.
The regulations were meant to give the government power to impose sanctions on those involved in the worst human rights abuses around the world. The law has since gotten a very long arm stretching across Europe that could complicate the lives of people sanctioned by America.
"Gen Kayihura is now doomed if he needs to travel to Europe or owns any assets there," a security official told The Observer on condition of anonymity.
"It has also become risky for the seven on the US watch list to travel abroad and if they own anything there, now is the time to dispose of them as soon as possible."
The administration and enforcement of these sanctions are delegated to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a financial intelligence agency that operates under the US Department of the Treasury. At the moment, Kayihura is included in the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list, a 'blacklist' maintained by OFAC.
As for the accused seven, their names are still undergoing administrative investigatory process in which they have no opportunity to defend themselves from being sanctioned.
PANIC AMONG FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Under the Magnitsky Act, every international company or financial institution that engages in international transactions must be cautious or completely avoid business transactions with a sanctioned individual. A company that deals with them risks US financial sanctions and penalties.
In fact, the US offers no excuse for 'We did not know' as a defense and any company that does so risks $1m (Shs 3.7bn) fine. Interviewed for this story, an official at the Uganda Banking Association who preferred anonymity, said all the seven military officers on the US Sabiiti Muzeyi watch list have been red-flagged as 'top risk.'
"We cannot tell whether they will be sanctioned or not and given that their fate is not in their hands, banks have been warned to be extra careful when dealing with the seven," she said.
"This is a caveat because a financial institution risks losing money if it continues to transact business with them and they end up being sanctioned."
Similarly, the situation is not any different in the insurance sector. An official from the Insurance Regulatory Authority said there is no need for panic. However, he warned that insurance companies may be hesitant to enter any deals in which the named seven have a hand.
"At the moment, they are on a yellow card; who in their right sense of mind can risk doing business with them when you know the next day it can be frozen and you lose money," he said.
"From an individual level, them being government officials will not deny them health insurance but accessing specialised healthcare abroad may now be difficult."
WHY SABIITI ON LIST AND NOT OCHOLA?
A source who preferred anonymity told The Observer that news of Muzeyi's placement on the watch list rattled some of the top brass. Some wondered why the Inspector General of Police, Martins Okoth Ochola didn't make the list.
"Several career police officers don't want to participate in human rights abuses as they edge closer to retirement," said the source. "The brutality has been left to younger or newer officers eager to gain favour or promotion within the force. Have you noticed most of these ruthless officers come from one region of the country?"
A top security officer who preferred anonymity noted that whereas the police force operates as an institution, the US lawmakers did thorough investigations before singling out Maj Gen Muzeyi.
"These Americans know it is Gen Muzeyi commanding and coordinating all sensitive police operations because they have informers amongst us," he said.
Faced with a new threat of having some senior officials in the government and security agencies sanctioned by the US, the government of Uganda has invited the American government not to act without listening to its side of the story.
Speaking to Radio One, a private broadcaster in Kampala, Uganda's Foreign Affairs state minister, Henry Okello Oryem said that while the government has not received a formal communication from Washington, the U.S should listen to Kampala's version rather than acting on "excitement" in the press.
"The government of Uganda will respond once we receive official communication and give our version of events so that any decision taken is based on both sides of the story rather than this excitement they are reading in the press," Oryem said.
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