Front Line is deeply concerned following reports of recent harassment and threats against human rights defenders, Ms Eugenie Mihigo Vumiliya and Mr Aaron Kamondo Byemba. Eugenie Mihigo Vumiliya is the Executive Director of The Women for Dignity and Development Foundation (WODIDEF), an organisation which seeks to improve the lives of refugee women and girls by using international human rights standards to advocate on their behalf. Aaron Kamondo Byemba is the Chairperson and researcher for the same organisation.

Further Information

WODIDEF has been carrying out research and activities concerning sexual and gender-based violence against refugee women in Uganda since October 2008.

On 15 April 2009, while Eugenie Mihigo Vumiliya was coming from the Refugee Law Project in Kampala, she noticed that she was being followed by three men. In an attempt to lose them she took a motorbike and as a precaution did not return to her own house that night. Prior to this incident, on the night of 14 April 2009, at approximately 9pm, Eugenie Mihigo Vumiliya received a threatening phone call from an unknown number. The caller asked for Aaron Kamondo Byemba's new telephone number and then said: “You and your colleague, you have been passing false information to the international community that criticise the Government of Uganda and the criminal justice system of the country, so you have got a serious problem with security. For more information, let me inform you that you are under security watch! You will not escape. Now, we will see what the international community will do in relation with your problem. This will be a lesson to you people.”

On the morning of 10 April 2009, Aaron Kamondo Byemba was denied access to his confidential work email to which only he and the executive director of the organisation have access. On the same morning he also received an anonymous call from a man asking him of his whereabouts. When he spoke in French the man did not respond and subsequently hung up. At approximately 10 am, he received another phone call from the number: +256(0)800200019. He did not answer this call, fearing for his safety. Five minutes later he received another call from +256(0)414595133. Members of WODIDEF believe that these numbers are those of Intelligence Agencies in Uganda, usually used to contact suspects.

Front Line believes the harassment and threats against Eugenie Mihigo Vumiliya and Aaron Kamondo Byemba are directly related to their work in the defence of human rights. Front Line is seriously concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of these human rights defenders.