Chissano tips on rights

Former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano has challenged the police to establish training academies to sharpen their skills in defending human rights and freedoms.

Chissano, who was the main speaker at the inaugural Julius Osega memorial lecture at Protea hotel this week, said: “The relationship between police and ordinary citizens is important because without it, there is no inherent dignity, freedoms and self-respect like what we are seeing in broken states.”

The lecture is in memory of a Ugandan police officer, who was killed during a July 8, 2008 ambush in Darfur, Sudan, while on UN duty.

“For far too long, we have been engaged in lip service on democratization and human rights with a high level of sophistry,” Chissano added. “Let us all commit to concrete action because we have no one expect ourselves to blame. Julius Osega is watching.”

ninsiima@observer.ug