David Kato’s murder: Ugandan Ambassador sends shocking letter to the President of the European Parliament

 
Press Release by No Peace Without Justice, Arcigay and Certi Diritti:
 
On 15 March 2011, the Ambassador of Uganda sent a shocking letter about the murder of David Kato Kisule on 26 January 2011 in his home, near Kampala, to the President of the European Parliament, expressing severe judgments based more on prejudice and ignorance than on procedural inquiries and investigations on the case.
 
In his letter to EP President Jerzy Buzeck, the Ambassador of Uganda, Stephen T.K. Katenta-Apuli, wrote “in order to correct the impression that you [Mr. President] and [other] Members of the European Parliament may have that the murder of David Kato was the result of his championing the rights of gays and lesbians in Uganda”, alleging that “nothing could be farther from the truth.”
 
In his letter, the Ugandan Ambassador describes the circumstances that led to Kato’s murderer, as an “unfortunate incident” in which David Kato should share responsibility for his own death. According to the Ambassador, David Kato did not pay for sexual services rendered by a former prisoner, who Kato had helped to be released from jail. In this way, the Ambassador stated that David Kato was himself responsible for his own death.
 
Furthermore the Ambassador, not content with expressing opinions on the difference between female and male prostitutes, said that the Ugandan Government has arrested the culprit, who will be found guilty and probably sentenced to death on the gallows.
 
The judgemental opinions expressed in Ambassador Katenta’s letter confirm once again that the Ugandan authorities do not intend to make any further effort in seeking the truth. Instead, it seems they would rather make David Kato Kisule responsible for his own murder, blaming it on the act of a single person and apparently overlooking reports by David’s neighbours about an unusual movement of people and a car parked in front of David’s house on the day of David’s murder, which was reported to the police the same day.
 
No Peace Without Justice, Arcigay and Certi Diritti express their concerns and condemn the conduct of the Ugandan authorities. We stand together with Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) who, together with their supporters and a lawyer in charge of representing David at the trial, have been asking for a full investigation of the facts surrounding David’s brutal murder that the police, so far, have refused to investigate seriously.
 
No Peace Without Justice, Arcigay and Certi Dirittiwith the approval of SMUG have launched in Italy last week an international fund-raising campaign to support financially the trial, which should start soon in Kampala, to allow the truth of David’s murder to be revealed.
 
 
Contact: Elio Polizzotto (NPWJ), email: epolizzotto@npwj.org, phone: +32 2 548 39 21.