Democratic Party chairman Mzee Boniface Byanyima has welcomed President Yoweri Museveni's change of mind, to allow a full investigation into the execution of two soldiers, implicated in the murder of the Irish priest, Rev. Fr. Michael O'Toole Declan and two aides in Kotido.
"I welcome Museveni's change of mind. It's good for Uganda, but I insist the probe team should be free of government interference," Byanyima told The Monitor, Sunday.
President Museveni announced the investigation on Thursday in response to concerns by the international diplomatic corps.
Cpl. Omedio and Pte Abdallah Mohammed were executed in Kotido, March 23.
But Byanyima remains suspicious.
"I warn the relatives of the executed soldiers and of the priest and the Irish government that since
independence, successive regimes in Uganda have failed to conduct justice," Byanyima said.
"Many people have been killed by these regimes innocent people have disappeared and there have been cover-ups," he said.
Byanyima cited 1971 when two Americans disappeared in Mbarara and then president Idi Amin promised to investigate.
It was only "when the US government insisted on a joint probe that the truth came out," he recalled.
"For example the death of Lutakome Kayiira, where is the report Museveni promised? In 1979, 63 Muslims were murdered when Museveni was minister of Defence in UNLF government" he said.