UGANDA - DEATH ROW CHOIR

14"00

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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GVs Victoria women's prison.

SONG: Rehabilitation in prison, rehabilitation in prison. We have learned so

much from this detention...

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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.

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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