UGANDA
World
Report 2000 Entry
World
Report 1999 Entry
Not a Level Playing Field: Government Violations in the Lead-Up to the
Election
There are serious human rights concerns
in the lead-up to Uganda's March 12, 2001 presidential elections that shed
doubt on whether the election will be free and fair. Not only is President
Yoweri Museveni relying on a biased legal framework, but he is also using
the state machinery to obstruct a transparent and fair electoral process.
In addition to its financial and structural advantage, arbitrary arrests,
attacks, and intimidation have been directed against the political opposition
and its supporters, and campaign agents. Since the start of the electoral
campaign on January 11, reported cases of violence and arbitrary arrests
implicate army soldiers, military intelligence officers, the police, and
the Presidential Protection Unit (PPU), as well as local defense units
that are trained and armed by the government. Members of the local administration
are also involved in harassment and intimidation of the opposition and
its supporters.
(A1301), 02/01, 12pp, $3.00
Order
online
Hostile
to Democracy The Movement System and Political Repression in Uganda
October 1999 (2394)
Government harassment and discriminatory legislation are suppressing
independent political activity in Uganda, Human Rights
Watch charged in a report released today. President Yoweri Museveni
and his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM)
are likely to entrench this restrictive system even further in a referendum
scheduled for June 2000. This report, entitled
"Hostile to Democracy: The Movement System and Political Repression
in Uganda," charges that Museveni's NRM has
outlawed most activities of political parties, including holding meetings
and public rallies and sponsoring candidates for
election. At the same time, the report recognizes that Uganda had made
significant progress in many reas of human rights.
Although police and army abuses persist, the NRM has forged an army
which is more disciplined than its predecessors.
Uganda has also established a credible Human Rights Commission. But
the progressive policies pursued by the Ugandan
government in some areas of human rights protection contrast sharply
with its policies in the political arena.
(2394), 10/99, 163 pp., ISBN 1-56432-239-4, $15.00
Order Online
The
Scars of Death
Children
Abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda
The Scars of Death documents the abduction
and killing of children in northern Uganda by a rebel group calling itself
the Lord's Resistance Army. The heavily-armed rebels abduct children as
young as eight from their schools and homes. The children are forced to
carry heavy loads,act as personal servants to the rebels, and, in the case
of girls, serve as "wives" to rebel commanders. Once abducted, the children
undergo a brutal initiation into rebel life: they are forced to participate
in acts of extreme violence, often compelled to help beat or hack to death
fellow child captives who have attempted to escape. The rebels march their
child captives to base camps in neighboring southern Sudan, and many children
die of disease or starvation during the march. Thosewho survive the journey
are given rudimentary military training and then forced into combat against
the Ugandan army and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army. Many of
the children are killed during the fighting.Children abducted by the Lord's
Resistance Army become virtual slaves: their labor, the bodies and their
lives are all at the disposal of their rebel captors. The Scars of Death
tells the children's stories, in their own words. The Lord's Resistance
Army's abduction of children presents an extreme example of a global trend
toward an increased reliance on child soldiers. Human Rights Watch calls
on the Lord's Resistance Army,the government of Sudan and the government
of Uganda to end the continued abduction and killing of children, and calls
on the international community to take concrete steps to end the use of
child soldiers throughout the world.
(221-1) 09/97, 152 pp., ISBN 1-56432-221-1,
$10.00
Order online
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Ave 34th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10118-3299
212 216-1213
Email Human Rights Watch
|