When Uganda’s ambassador to Malaysia made the first contact with captors in Myanmar in November 2023, it was a wild chase.
But Ms Betty Bigombe said behind the scenes were diplomatic manoeuvres with the captors and rebels that secured the release of 23 Ugandans who had been trafficked to Myanmar.
Ms Bigombe last Saturday said she spent months shuttling between Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and Burma, where the Ugandans were being held.
She said before she arrived in Malaysia, the victims had been contacting the embassy but received no serious response from officials.
“Some of the captives got in touch with me and they were totally helpless,” she said. “When they get there, they are huddled into these camps and their phone taken away, passports removed, are ushered into some kind of shelters housing about 10 people in one room, and told to work for 20 hours a day. In the first week, they’re also trained to scam people,” she added.
Ms Bigombe said the constant distress calls from the captives forced her into action.
“I cannot say the embassy was not doing anything, but they were so relaxed about it. So I picked interest and managed to get in touch,” she said.
Ms Bigombe said after getting in touch with the captives, her next move was to establish contacts with the captors and the other interest groups working to secure the release of those trafficked.
She said she finally managed to get in touch with one of the NGOs that connected her to the Chinese holding the Ugandans captive. But the Chinese rebuffed her, although she did not give up.
From refusing to talk, the Chinese captors reportedly demanded a ransom to secure the freedom of the Ugandans. Ms Bigombe said the team first demanded $10,000 per person. But after a long haggling, they lowered the demands to $5,000, which she still objected to.
Having hit a dead end with the traffickers, a new window opened when Ms Bigombe established a direct link with the rebel commanders fighting the government of Myanmar, a territory where the Ugandan captives were held.
“Eventually, they said, okay, we’ll reduce the amount to $5,000 per person. I said I still couldn’t afford it. But in the meantime, I found another route of now reaching out to the Myanmar rebel groups since the people were being held in rebel-controlled areas,” she said.
She said she also took the risk of illegally crossing to Myanmar from Thailand to have direct talks with the rebel leaders to exert pressure on the Chinese captors to release the Ugandans.
“So, I negotiated with them. They said, we’ll think about it. They said, write to us. “So, I wrote to them and they said they will meet to see how to handle the situation,” she said.
She said after some days, the rebels invited her to the border with Thailand where they met. In the same meeting, she managed to secure a commitment from the rebel commanders to secure the release of the captives.
The arrival of the first lot of freed Ugandans in May was greeted with celebrations at Entebbe Airport.
More Ugandans, estimated to be in hundreds, are reportedly still trapped in Myanmar but more behind the scenes efforts are being made to ensure their release.
