POLICE RAID

INCREASED VIOLENCE AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST LGBTIQ REFUGEES IN UGANDA

Simma Africa Creative Arts Foundation

 PRESS RELEASE

31st MARCH 2020

We would like to believe that not all law enforcement officers are bad. Some are understanding and very professional BUT most are very brutal and have no regard for privacy or human rights.

On 19th March 2020, two of our members from Simma Africa Creative Arts Foundation (SAF) were followed to our offices by two men who introduced themselves as police men. Usually they are very careful while coming to the office. This day was different. They were asked for documentation and due to language barrier they did not fully grasp what was being asked of them. Due to the fact that they are used to brutality from police personnel they ran to the office.

Me the ED and our advocacy officer were in office. Our members got in office and were pretty shaken up . I tried to get the story but about six minutes later the officers came in. They were in plain clothing not uniforms. So they started speaking in Luganda and Swahili. I told them I was a teacher and these were my students. They told me that my students had assaulted them when they asked for ID's. I tried to apologize and said their papers were being processed at Office of the Prime Minister since they are refugees but they wanted to hear none of it.

Four laptops and two phones were on our work table. The officers grabbed them and tried to exit the office, we started protesting their actions and made a call that was heard by the other business renting at the offices. At this point staff from the ground floor office had come up and started to loudly condemn the said officers. They blocked the door and said they should return our laptops and phones. In a rage one officer threw two laptops plus the phones to the ground and at this point a scuffle between the staff at the door and the said police in sued. They were able to take them outside the gate but not before they destroyed our property and still stole two laptops. One phone was completely damaged the other was partiality damaged. The remaining laptops were damaged as well.

We called a laptop repair man who made an inspection of the equipment. One laptop the fiber was damaged so it could not display anything the other one the charging port was completely broken. He suggested we get a new laptops and phones. 

We notified our partner organizations Alliance of Women Advocating for Change(AWAC Network), Access for All(AFA), Africa Youth Action Network(AYAN), Uganda Key Population Consortium(UKPC), Golden Center of Women's Rights Uganda(GCWRU) and informed them of the incident since our members were not comfortable reporting the incident to the same police that has always traumatized them.  

About one week later the Government of Uganda announced a total lock down of the country which forced our organization to close its offices. This was due to the COVID19 pandemic. We had no time to react appropriately to this situation. In any crisis, LGBTIQ communities are often disproportionately affected due to pre-existing vulnerabilities. The same is true now as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the forced isolation imposed due to government Lock-downs the Internet continues to offer an avenue for the majority of our members to interact & stay socially connected. While the internet and social media platforms are essential, they also are breeding spaces of gender based violence, with perpetrators hiding behind keyboards to harass LGBTIQ+ persons. While the internet is essential to our communication Data rates are high and some of our members cannot afford to stay online. Due to the current situation it's very difficult to communicate with our members and write any proposals since our laptops are down. We need HELP!