Of Elephants and Injustice

Dateline: Sunday, May 20, 2012 The last three weeks I've spent in Katwe have been a great time of relaxation and refreshing. Rural Uganda, at least in this area of the country, is very peaceful and beautiful. Waking up to the sound of hippos laughing is much more pleasant than hearing the screeching of the rooster back in Entebbe. I have seen lots of wildlife here including hippos, elephants, water buffalo, Ugandan Kob, bush bucks, water bucks, crocodiles, warthogs, mongoose, baboons, all kinds of birds, and even a Green and a Black Mamba! Seeing these animals in their natural habitat is much more thrilling than viewing them in a zoo. The people who live in this area really don't seem to pay much atttention to the wildlife. I guess if you live with them every day you sort of take them for granted or at least think it's normal. Just as those who live in big cities take skyscrapers for granted, yet to someone from rural Uganda they would be an amazing sight. The other evening we were going to meet up with other internaitonals, working here in western Uganda, for dinner in a town called Kasese; which is about 45 minutes from Katwe by car. We left at dark and headed down the dirt road from Katwe through Queen Elizabeth National Park to get to the main road. Suddenly three elephants ran across the road in front of our car and we almost hit one of the babies! (It was a mother elephant and two babies.) Well, I'm quite sure that we would have been the loosers in that confrontation. Plus, if we had hit one of the babies the mother would have charged at the car in defense of her young one. I was very glad we did not hit them. Then just a little further down the road we saw a bull elephant walking on the side of the road. He was very big with long tusks. Love the up close and personal view of these extraordinary animals! Besides enjoying all the wildlife and beauty of western Uganda, I have also had the great privilege of observing the local justice system here in Katwe (and I use the term justice very loosely here). Almost all the people who are brought to the magistrate's court for trial do not have a lawyer, do not understand the legal system of Uganda, do not understand the charges or procedures they are taking part in and do not know their rights. If they were in prison prior to their trial, they were herded in like cattle chained together and made to sit on the floor until their case was called. If they do not have money to pay for bribing officials then they most likely will be found guilty and sent to prison for 6 months to several years simply because they do not understand the system and what they can do to defend themselves. Case in point - a man had a verbal argument with his neighbor and told the neighbor that his mouth was like a vagina. The neighbor was offended and proceeded to pay bribes to several officials and police to have the man charged with common assault. The man did not think he did anything wrong and so did not appear in court for the hearing. So, the man was arrested for failure to appear and thrown in jail for a week until the next trial date. The neighbor who had filed the charges paid officials to keep him in prison. When the next trial came the man was brought into court in shackles. Fortunately my good friend, Miriam, was there to defend this man and spoke up in court. The neighbor had asked for this man to be put in prison for two years! Yes you read that correctly, two years for having a verbal argument in which no threats of physical violence were made. Miriam said to the magistrate that because this was a civil case he could not send a man to prison on this charge and that the whole thing was ridiculous because it was simply an argument between two neighbors and not a physical confrontation. The magistrate then asked the man to apologize to the neighbor for his remark and then asked the neighbor (who filed the charge) if he would consider less prison time. Miriam again spoke up stating that it was not for the plaintiff to decide if the defendant should get prison time or how much, it was for the magistrate to make that determination, which in this case could not apply. So the magistrate finally agreed to dismiss the charge. Well, that was not the end of the story, because the neighbor then filed a lawsuit against the man for reimbursement for the bribes he had paid to the officials to get the case heard in the first place. Thus we went back to court to answer this new charge, which by the way was not even filed correctly because it did not state what the money he was requesting was for. Again the absurdity of this whole process was incredible! This neighbor admitted in open court and had written down in detail what the money was for - the bribes he had paid people. Well, this man should have been arrested himself for this illegal act but he was not. We had provided written evidence from Uganda law how this was illegal and why the magistrate should dismiss the claim. The magistrate finally said he wanted to dismiss the whole thing but the neighbor would not let it go, so the magistrate postponed it to another date. This whole experience made me think about all the people, not just in Uganda, but all over the world who may be illiterate, not know their own legal system, not know their rights and not have the means to pay for legal defense. I'm sure that here in Uganda, as well as elsewhere, many, many people are thrown in jail because of this or because they don't have the money to bribe officials. I think it is tragic and it started me thinking about a topic for my PhD - human rights and justice. Something more to think and pray about. Well, it's back to work for me now, back to Entebbe and Sitabaale. Enjoyed my vacation in western Uganda and the new friends I made while there. Love to you all from The Pearl.