Environmentalists demand unconditional release of arrested anti-East African oil activists

Port Harcourt — The National Association of Professional Environmentalists, NAPE, has demanded the unconditional release of nine activists arrested by the Ugandan Police Force, while on a peaceful protest against the funding of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, EACOP.

The Police in Uganda had on Monday arrested the activists marching to the Chinese Embassy in Kampala, the country’s capital, to deliver a protest letter against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline funding.

Executive Director of NAPE, Frank Muramuzi, maintained that detaining environmentalists for peaceful protest was unlawful and the culprits should be punished.

Muramuzi said the humiliation and inhuman treatment were not only a human rights abuse but had no place in the modern world and should be condemned at all costs.

He said: “The use of excessive force to arrest peaceful and unarmed civilians is a big shame to a civilian force like the Police and violates the Ugandan Constitution.

“NAPE strongly warns and calls the Police to stop this harassment and intimidation of environmental activists, and we demand their unconditional release.

“In any case, this EACOP and other oil development projects are public investments that should be kept under scrutiny by the citizens. If these investments are to come at the cost of denying citizens their rights, then they need to be fought at any cost.

“OilWatch Africa supports the call for the release of the eight detained activists and frowns at the harassment of citizens fighting for the rights of Africans to a safe environment as enshrined in Article 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”