On April 28, 28 people were executed in Luzira prison,...

On April 28, 28 people were executed in Luzira prison, in Kampala. The convicts were given 3 days within which to consult their relatives, ask for any meal they wanted, and pray to God. In announcing the scheduled hangings on April 27, prison official W.J. Kurulagire gave no specifics about the crimes, including where and when they had been committed. But the Government said that 26 of those to hang were convicted of murder and 2 of robbery with weapons and violence. Among them was Hajji Musa Ssebirumbi, the former Uganda People's Congress Chairman and a National Security Agency (NASA) operative for Luweero, convicted in 1989 of political killing during the 5-year bush war that brought President Yoweri Museveni to power in 1986. Kurulagire said the appeals process had been exhausted and that the executions were approved by the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, which reviews such cases."For us, the numbers do not matter. Our complaint has always been against the death penalty. We have also told the Government that one of the condemned was a political detainee, but they wouldn't listen," said J.K. Zirabamuzale, Chairman of the Uganda Prisoners Aid Foundation.A witness said Ssebirumbi was the first to be hanged. Each prisoner for hanging, they said, is made to stand on a raised square platform, and a sack pulled over his head. His hands are tied behind and each trouser leg is tied with a string. The hangman then presses a switch which activates the "rope" from above which, in a flash, grips the prisoner by the neck. The metal string swiftly lifts the prisoner high and he falls back almost instantly. The wooden platform where he initially stood will have shifted and the body falls through to an underground compartment.Herbert Beck, chargé d'affaires of the German embassy in Kampala, said the prisoners were executed despite the fact that the EU nations with missions in Uganda sent President Museveni a letter on April 28, "appealing for the death sentences to be commuted to life imprisonment."The Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy reportedly recommended confirmation of the prisoners' death sentences after the Supreme Court denied their appeals. This Committee advises the Ugandan President on which death sentences he should commute or confirm. The President still has the option to override the Committee, exercise executive clemency and spare the prisoners' lives. Ugandan non-governmental organizations, such as the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), said that despite a high level of conflict and urban terrorism in Uganda at the moment, the executions will only serve to increase the level of violence in the country.