January 2004
President Yoweri Museveni, who won the March 2001 presidential elections against a background of abuses of civilian opposition campaigners, continues to head the "Movement" system of government based in Uganda. The Movement system is based on the idea of one supposedly all-inclusive "movement" in which individual candidates would run for elections based on their personal merit. In practice, this "no-party" system has significantly curtailed civil and political rights of those who are in political opposition.
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- The War in Northern Uganda
- The Conflict in DRC
- Torture and Other Abuses by Ugandan Security Forces
- Press Freedom
- International Actors
The War in Northern Uganda
The LRA has intensified its policy of abducting northern Ugandan children to use as soldiers and forced sexual partners for its officers. This has brought the number of abducted children to a new high. Some estimate that as many as 20,000 children have been seized by the LRA over the course of the war. Evidence has emerged of continued Sudanese government support for the LRA, contrary to the government claim that the support is coming from "rogue army officers."
Since June 2002, the LRA has attacked civilians living in displaced persons camps and others it considered to be collaborating with the UPDF. It destroys and loots their property, and takes captives to porter the loot to their camps. Cases of mutilation of suspected spies, including cutting off lips and limbs, are appearing again.
The UPDF has also committed abuses in the north, largely against civilians, including arbitrary detention, torture, rape, and stealing. A few civilians have filed civil actions for damages on account of torture, rape, and other ill treatment; the UPDF soldiers are rarely punished for any crimes against northern civilians. The judiciary and the Uganda Human Rights Commission, a constitutionally established body, have taken important moves toward better protection of the rights of individuals from state power, particularly in northern Uganda, but so far these are limited in scope.
Some observers question the willingness and effectiveness of the UPDF to protect civilians against the LRA, claiming that the UPDF is often strangely absent when the LRA strikes. In some cases the UPDF has demanded payment (in fuel and food) from relief agencies for guarding relief convoys. More than 800,000 civilians have been forcibly displaced from their homes and farms into government-controlled displaced camps.
The Conflict in DRC
Uganda occupied parts of the DRC from 1998 to June 2003. In some regions, particularly in northeastern Ituri, its troops allegedly committed war crimes and failed to protect the civilian population, as they were obligated to do under international humanitarian law. Ugandan soldiers helped to create and support several local armed groups, including at various times both Hema and Lendu militias. Some of these armed groups advocated extreme ethnically-based positions and committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of human rights on a large scale in Ituri. Even after the withdrawal of their troops, Ugandan officials continued to support some of these groups.
The UN Panel of Experts investigating the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the DRC concluded that an elite network including Ugandan soldiers, officials, and politicians plundered the DRC for their own benefit and to finance the war. The Porter Commission set up by the Ugandan authorities in 2001 to investigate these allegations produced their final report in 2003. The commission exonerated the Ugandan government but confirmed that high-ranking members of the UPDF were involved in corrupt activities and recommended further investigation into some high ranking officials.
Torture and Other Abuses by Ugandan Security Forces
Ugandan security and intelligence agencies have increased their use of torture, illegally detaining suspects in "safe houses," illegal places of detention, and holding them for weeks or months longer than the permitted forty-eight hours without charging them with any crime. Methods of torture include gang rape of females and attaching wires to, beating, and kicking the male genitals, with loss of penile function as a result.
Among the agencies accused of torture are the UPDF, the Chieftancy of Military Intelligence (CMI), the Internal Security Organization (ISO), and ad hoc agencies such as the Joint Anti-Terrorist Task Force (JATF). Both CMI and JATF have been implicated in extrajudicial executions of detainees. The High Court ruled in February 2003 that the UPDF had to turn over to his relatives the body of a prisoner shot dead in a UPDF raid on the Gulu prison in late 2002, but the UPDF failed to comply.
The illegal detentions in safe houses seem to be related in large measure to military intelligence, UPDF, and security force suspicions that the detainees are involved in opposition activities; these activities are then linked, in the authorities' minds, to armed rebel movements directed against the government. Many previously politically active suspects are charged with terrorism or treason, both of which carry the death penalty. By constitutional provision detainees in such cases may be held for up to 360 days without being charged with any crime.
Press Freedom
A temporary closure by army and police of the Kampala-based Monitor in late 2002, an independent newspaper, has had a chilling effect on that newspaper and on free speech generally. The president has stated in September 2003 that telephone surveillance was giving the government greater means to listen in on private calls and this, too, had a deterrent effect.
International Actors
U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs chief Jan Egeland's visit to Northern Uganda in late 2003 brought about a renewal of U.N. efforts to bring attention to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the area, where 80 percent of the entire population remains in displaced persons' camps, and security also remains very poor for relief agencies as well as for the population itself.
A group of international donors meets regularly with the Ugandan government and negotiates budget items, including defense spending, with it; these donors provide one-half of the budget of the Ugandan government, and their funds go directly to the treasury once the budget has been agreed upon; among other things, they agree on the percentage of the budget which will be allocated to defense. The U.S. government is not part of the donors' group, and has proceeded with its plans to provide military assistance and training to the UPDF to be able to adequately protect civilians in northern Uganda as well as to become an effective counterinsurgency force. No human rights conditions are seemingly attached to this renewal of military assistance, which was curbed after the UPDF occupied part of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
