UGANDA - DEATH ROW CHOIR
14"00
0000
GVs Maximum Security Prison walls.
SONG This is a message from the broken hearts, coming to you, begging for
mercy, we know we did wrong, we know we hurt you baba, but please we cry to
you, please, please, please, we are sorry....
0016
GVs Members of the Death Row Choir, walking.
REPORTER: The men in white are from the condemned section of Luzira Maximum
Security Prison in Kampala, Uganda. They've been sentenced to death for
crimes such as murder, armed robbery and treason. This choir of condemned
inmates is trying to publicise their fight against the death penalty,
they're singing for their lives.
0036
GVs Choir singing.
SONG Please, baba, please, baba, please, we are sorry...
0042
NARRATOR: In the first case of its kind anywhere in the world, a coalition
of all the inmates on death row is engaged in a long-running legal battle
with the government. They say the death penalty is unconstitutional and
should be abolished.
0057
GVs Medium Security Prison hospital.
PRISONER: Born to suffer, born to suffer.
0104
GVs Alexander McLean inspecting hospital.
REPORTER: Alexander McLean is a 22-year-old law graduate from London and the
founder of the African Prisons Project. Over the past four years he's spent
much of his time working in African prisons. At the medium security jail he
is helping to organise the rennovation of the prison hospital.
0121
MCLEAN with patient: I hope that quickly you get better.
0126
REPORTER: He's also arranged for the death row choir to record an album of
their songs.
0130
MCLEAN: I Think all the inmates use song and music as a way of sharing their
concerns and their problems with the outside world, indeed they don't get
any other opportunities of doing so, and all prisoners face problems, but in
condemned section when the problem you face is possibly losing your life it
really focuses their minds. The songs that they sing are very touching,
clearly a great deal of thought has gone into them so they really have a
strong impact on the listener.
0205
GVs Choir
SONG: Sing a song of freedom, everyone join in, people come together,
everybody sing...
0221
GVs Choir
REPORTER: Prisoners and human rights groups estimate that as many as 30-40%
of the inmates are innocent of the crimes for which they have been
convicted. Inmates complain about not having received proper representation
at their trials and the judicial system is far from perfect. One man spent
18 and a half years on death row before being given a presidential pardon
when his so-called murder victim was found to be alive and well. The
prisoners name was Edward Mpagi. He now campaigns against the death penalty
on Ugandan radio.
0258
GVs Edward Mpagi
MPAGI: The distress you face when you know when you will die, waiting to
die. When it comes to night you say hey, really I've survived today but
tomorrow... Sometimes it brings on ulcers in the stomach, you get diarrhea
because of the fear. If you haven't the strength of God to give you strength
you can't overcome it. That's the biggest problem I faced when I was in
condemned and that's what they face.
0332 There are so many people on death row who are innocent, or those who
committed it but felt sorry, or those where there was a causing of
committing that crime. They are there.
0345
GVs Kampala Road.
REPORTER: There have been no civilian executions on death row since 1999
when 28 men were hung at the gallows in a single day. Later this year, the
Supreme Court will make a final decision on the abolition of the death
penalty. They must decide, not just whether the death penalty is cruel,
inhuman and degrading, and therefore against the Ugandan constitution, but
also whether the mandatory death sentence should be scrapped.
0409
SIM KATENDE: Right now the he law as it is in Uganda is that if you commit
any one of the following four offences - murder, armed robbery, armed
smuggling and certain types of treason, the only sentence that a judge can
give you is the death sentence. In fact, the judges, when they are issuing
the sentences usually say 'my hands are tied'. So, for instance, if I pull
out a penknife now
0434 and I told you hand me your cell phone, and the judge finds you were
armed, you had a penknife, you robbed him, you took his cell phone, once he
finds me guilty of that the only punishment he can give me is the death
sentence.
0448 In the same way, if he found a serial killer, who had killed 500
people, he would give him the same sentence as me.
0454
GVs Commissioner General's office
REPORTER: There are about 550 men and women sentenced to death in Uganda.
The choir sings that they can still be useful members of society. The prison
service agrees, and the Commissioner General is one of the death penalty's
most outspoken critics.
0510
COMMISSIONER GENERAL OF PRISONS, DR JOHNSON BYABASHAIJA: As you know, it's
out of fashion all over the world to execute people. I think it's something
which is going out of fashion. Personally or departmentally, as a department
we don't believe in the death penalty. Because we think It's not our mandate
to take life. Life can only be taken by God. Because of our inefficient
systems you cannot be sure that you are not going to execute the wrong
people.
0549 Our systems are still very rudimentary. Let these people be sentenced
to life, real life. Because a person who kills another deserves not to be in
society. But does he deserve to die? I don't know. That is another question
but for us we don't believe in that.
0607 Although we are the department mandated to carry out executions by
hanging. We have the scaffolds, we have the executioners, they are all
functioning. But we don't agree with that and that's our stand.
0625
MPAGI: You think your friend has gone. If they have killed him, what about
me? You are on your last chance, maybe you wrote your petition to the
president. You don't know what criteria they will use... Definitely you get
scared and you are distressed.
0644 It can change your senses and you become mad. And some become lunatics.
They have changed. They don't... they are no longer normal.
0659
GVs Death row school.
HEAD TEACHER in class: No gains without pains, at times you have to suffer a
bit...
REPORTER: The inmates on death row started their own school, where they are
both the pupils and the teachers. Many prisoners are illiterate when they
arrive, but in this small room they can learn to read and write, and
continue their studies all the way up to A-level. They even sit public
exams. It's a rehabilitation programme that the prison service encourages.
HEAD TEACHER writing on board: The weaknesses of the directory government.
0736
OFFICER IN CHARGE, CONDEMNED SECTION, ALLAN MUSHABE: We believe they should
be here and they should be rehabilitated. They should be well equipped and
given the necessary skills so that when they go outside they can be
beneficial, not only to their families but to society as a whole. And with
education, besides equipping them with the necessary skills... it helps them
to become more disciplined. It's easier to tame a literate person than an
illiterate person.
0813
GVs rain in prison yard.
REPORTER: I was not allowed to film inside the cells of the condemned
section or to interview current death row inmates on camera, but this man,
sentenced to death for murder, wanted to be heard.
0824
ANONYMOUS PRISONER: The problem in our country here is just because... maybe
sometimes we suffer because of poverty, because of corruption in the
government. So, you see this is why people are full in the condemned
section. Here we are different kinds of people, army men, they are there,
civilians, any kind of people.
0853 For us we say 'No, wait' because we cannot die like that. First of all
they have to investigate. They have to see how we are, how we act, how are
appearance is. This is why you see our struggle with prison very much.
0919
CUs choir, staring into camera
REPORTER: The death row inmates are locked down from four in the afternoon
until eight in the morning. During the day they can play chess or
volleyball, go to school or watch television. But at night they are
confined, sometimes six men to a cell, sleeping on bedding rolled out on the
floor. A small window high up in the wall provides little light or
ventilation. And with the gallows just on the other side of the prison wall,
the thought of death is never far away.
0948 Some prisoners complain of being beaten by the guards and the use of
isolation cells, although the prison authority says it is working to promote
better rights for the inmates. Many of those who have survived the system
also want to ensure those rights. Robert Mugisha had his death sentence
commuted to life in prison, and is due for release this year.
1012
MUGISHA: During my stay in prison here I decided to continue with studies.
This year I sat for my A-level exams. I wish if the results come in my
favour, I wish to pursue law at the higher institution. Whereby in case I
finish I become a lawyer. My aim or task I am foreseeing is that I will be
able to advocate for the rights of the prisoners, especially those in
prisons who are denied of good justice. I will see that at least their
rights are preserved.
1100
GVs Victoria women's prison.
SONG: Rehabilitation in prison, rehabilitation in prison. We have learned so
much from this detention...
1118
REPORTER: Susan Kigula, nearest the camera, is one of about 30 women who
have been condemned to death. She has spent more than five years on death
row, accused of murdering her husband, a crime she vigorously denies. Hers
is the lead case against the death penalty and she speaks, and sings, on
behalf of the condemned.
1140 SONG, Susan Kigula: We are crying to the authorities, our leaders in
Uganda, President our father pardon us. We assure you we've changed so much.
We are good citizens of Uganda. Give us another chance to live, you won't
regret.
1206
MCLEAN: I think hope is important for all of us. For anyone in prison hope
is set on the day you get out. For those guys who have been sentenced to
death if you gave up hope I don't know how you would go on. Living in such
close proximity to the gallows and in such miserable surroundings. I'm sure
up until the very last minute people hope that they will either get their
case quashed at the court of appeal or they will get a presidential pardon.
Hope is something I think anyone who visits the condemned section will find
in abundance.
1249
MPAGI: That person should be forgiven and given another punishment. Because
death is not a punishment, death is not a punishment. If they kill him what
will you gain? But if he suffers, if he is punished in prison to work, like
in Uganda here you go and work for 20 years, working for nothing, it is not
an easy thing. Therefore I should appeal to people that they should learn
forgive and if you forgive you have peace.
1320
SONG, Susan Kigula: It's true we have accepted that we made a mistake. We
plead for your forgiveness in repentance. Death penalty should be abolished.
We won't do it again, we are broken, do not kill us, we are so sorry.
end
Reporter / Camera / Editor: Joe Sinclair
Music: Death Row Choir, Uganda