KAMPALA — The military has denied allegations by The Capital Times, a local news website that Lt. Gen Peter Elwelu, the Commander Land Forces (UPDF) has run run mad and that he was on the weekend transferred to Butabika Hospital for medication.
UPDF spokesperson Brig. Richard Karemire has on Tuesday, March 1, 2020 categorically denied reports of Gen Elwelu’s madness and said there’s absolutely no iota of truth in the Capital Times story.
“We wish to dismiss the rumour circulated by “The Capital Times”regarding the health of Lt Gen Peter Elwelu the UPDF CLF (Commander Land Forces),” he wrote in a Twitter post.
“There is absolutely no iota of truth in the mentioned article.The contents should therefore be ignored and not cause any anxiety,” Brig. Karemire added.
Many comments that followed his Twit have requested the army should produce the “troubled” General to prove Capital Times wrong.
“That is the right thing to do. If you brought him out there would be no more claims. Otherwise, you are doing your PR work,” one of the comments suggests.
“Where is Gen. Elwelu..? Bring him on board to refute allegations” another added.
“False or right, he response from people has taught you what Ugandans think about your terror regime,” a one Kaweesa, Kaweesa wrote.
“I watched a clip about him and he looks mad to me !” Maximillian Christon
@MaximillianChri noted.
Gen. Elwelu is remembered for his leadership role in the 2016 attack on Charles Wesley Mumbere’s palace in Kasese in 2016.
In the media, Elwelu, now a Lt. general, has actively defended his decision to attack the palace, contending that the people inside were all armed fighters, including Congolese fighters, and saying that he now sleeps well at night.
He was promoted to chief of land forces, one of the highest-ranking positions in the army.
Speaking to NTV on the day the armed forces attacked the palace in 2016, Brig Elwelu repeatedly referred to those gunned down at the palace as “terrorists”, and argued that King Mumbere had dishonoured two ultimatums agreed with President Museveni.
“We had to go for these terrorists, they were hiding in the palace,” Brig Elwelu told NTV Uganda.
The government has arrested and charged more than 180 people, including the cultural institution’s king, known as the Omusinga, with murder, treason, and terrorism, among other charges.
None of the 180 are members of the police or military and no one has been charged for the killing of the civilians, including children.
In 2017, Brig. Karemire Brig. Richard Karemire, told Human Rights Watch that there has been no investigation into the military’s conduct and that none is planned.
The government is under an obligation to investigate any operation where there is such loss of life and should do so promptly.
But given limited prospects for a credible follow up by domestic authorities, an independent, impartial investigation, with international expertise, should be urgently conducted, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 95 people in six subcounties of the Kasese district, including many families of the people killed, and reviewed video and photographs of the events. Many people voiced significant fears of reprisals given the presence of security forces in the area.
Human Rights Watch found evidence, including accounts by confidential sources and medical personnel who witnessed the events, that security officials had misrepresented the number of people killed and eliminated evidence of the children’s deaths.