Wednesday, April 30, 2008
After torrents of pressure from friends of Mwenda including AfricanLiberty.org, the Ugandan authorities finally released him and his colleagues from unlawful detention. But it reminas uncertain if they will not be picked up again as they have vowed to continue publishing the story (deeply worryign human righst violations against Ugandan citizens). We know that the price for liberty is eternal vigilance, but should we risk our lives for the truth in certain circumstances? Mwenda sent me the following reply to the last question.
" Nkrumah said that "freedom is not a commondity that is given to the enslaved upon demand. it is the precious reward, the shining trophy of struggle and sacrife." I do not want to play it safe especially so if doing so will stop me from fighting for freedom and liberty in uganda – simply because i do not want to be imprisoned, tortured or killed. my life would be meaningless if I lived for 100 years – just because I stood by watching evil being committed and i did nothing about it. A time comes when people have to take a stand, a strong stand against tyranny. There are costs in doing this – we risk our freedom (when we go to jail) or our lives (if we get killed). But someone has to pay the price in order for countries to progress. I cannot hide these people’s suffering in order to remain alive. I would have abandoned my responsibility to uganda and to humanity."
We at AfricanLiberty.org will do whatever it take to ensure that the voice of tyranny will never reign supreme in any civilized discourse. We wish Mwenda and his team well.