Milton Olupot
23 April 2011
THE Uganda Government Prisons department needs close to sh8b to securely keep terrorism and war crimes suspects in incarceration, Parliament’s committee on defence and internal affairs heard on Friday.
Deputy prisons chief James Mwanje, presenting the budget framework review for the department, said keeping the terrorism suspects in custody was one of the biggest challenges the institution was facing.
Flanked by the internal affairs state minister, Matia Kasaija, the prisons chief told the committee, chaired by Milton Muwuma (NRM), that the terror suspects are very difficult to handle because they are willing and ready to die.
“We have been trained in handling other suspects like robbery or murder suspects that fear to die, but not terrorism suspects who are ready to die,” he said.
Mwanje said there is need for specialised training and security equipment to handle terrorists and war crime suspects.
“We lack facilities to contain war crime suspects and training of prisons officers to match the military skills of the suspects,” he said.
Mwanje said specialised security equipment requires about sh5b, the training needs sh300m and sh2.5b for a security fence.
AllAfrica – All the Time
Continued here:
Prisons Need Sh8 Billion for Terror Suspects