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V. Human Rights Violations in UPDF Operations in Karamoja

During a field visit to Karamoja in late January/early February 2007, Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed victims of and eyewitnesses to nine cordon and search operations, as well as the January 2007 confrontation between Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) soldiers and Karamojong communities in Lotome subcounty, Moroto district.¹⁵⁰ Information about three other confrontations between UPDF soldiers and Karamojong communities, at least two of which were preceded by cordon and search operations, were collected from public reports of the Uganda office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the national print media, and interviews with UPDF spokespersons and other knowledgeable sources.¹⁵¹ The findings of Human Rights Watch’s research in Uganda tends to substantiate allegations of unlawful killings and other excessive force, torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, arbitrary detention, and destruction of property during UPDF-conducted law enforcement operations in Karamoja.

The Ministry of Defence/UPDF spokesperson’s office, writing to Human Rights Watch in September, has denied that four of the operations described below took place at all.

A. Unlawful Killings and Excessive Use of Force

International law protects the individual’s right to life,¹⁵² including from unlawful killings by state agents.¹⁵³ As a corollary, law enforcement officials may only use firearms in exceptional cases, with restraint, and even then as a last resort.¹⁵⁴

Lopuyo, Kotido district, and Morungole, Kaabong district, October 2006

On October 29, 2006, separate cordon and search disarmament operations in Lopuyo village, Rengen subcounty, Kotido district, and in the Morungole hills area of Kaabong district, led to violent clashes between the UPDF and the local population.

According to a local elected leader and other unidentified sources, as reported in a national newspaper, the clash in Lopuyo between the UPDF and armed men of a Jie community on October 29 was sparked when soldiers conducting a cordon and search operation shot dead six youths participating in a traditional dance and a UPDF major was then killed by members of the community.¹⁵⁵ A UPDF spokesperson told Human Rights Watch that reports the UPDF fired first were incorrect.¹⁵⁶

According to an investigation by OHCHR (which does not purport to resolve whether one side or another initiated the clash), approximately 48 civilians, including women and children, and an unknown number of UPDF soldiers, including the major, were killed that day.¹⁵⁷ Allegedly, soldiers summarily executed six people and arbitrarily killed another four who were among 25 men they locked inside a building and fired upon through an open window; six others were injured. Soldiers allegedly raped an elderly woman.¹⁵⁸ Soldiers also allegedly set fire to 23 manyattas, rendering at least 1,133 people homeless, some of whom reportedly fled to the bush to escape further violence.¹⁵⁹

OHCHR also reported that a retaliatory attack and looting by armed civilians the following day, October 30, on civil servant quarters in nearby Kotido town caused the displacement of an estimated 702 individuals.¹⁶⁰ One child was wounded in the attack.¹⁶¹ Separately, a policeman and a teacher were killed in a road ambush attributed to armed civilians near to Kotido town on October 30.¹⁶² Humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Caritas, Oxfam, and the Church of Uganda, provided emergency assistance to persons displaced by the violence.¹⁶³

The clashes in the Morungole hills area, which also began on October 29, received comparatively less national attention. In a letter published in the government-owned New Vision newspaper, President Museveni stated that a UPDF helicopter gunship “inflicted serious damage to the cattle thieves” during these clashes.¹⁶⁴ According to the unverified reports of a knowledgeable source who spoke to Human Rights Watch on condition of anonymity, soldiers acting on information that the people who had taken their cattle to the area were heavily armed and also that some criminals were hiding in the hills approached the area from three directions in the early hours of October 29. Several firefights between the soldiers and members of the community ensued, with the UPDF ultimately resorting the following day to the use of helicopter gunships (as confirmed by President Museveni’s statement in his letter to the editor, quoted above) and tanks. Information collected by the source, but unverified by Human Rights Watch, indicates that at least 17-19 UPDF soldiers and an unknown number of civilians were killed; some of these civilians may have died from lack of medical care.¹⁶⁵

Kalodeke ward, Lokolia parish, Kaabong district, December 7, 2006

Eight individuals were killed as they attempted to flee during a cordon and search and stolen cattle recovery operation in Kalodeke ward, Lokolia parish, Kaabong subcounty on December 7, 2006.¹⁶⁶

On the day of the operation, soldiers surrounded the manyattas at about 5 a.m. Witnesses estimated that there were around 300 soldiers on foot, who were described as all armed with automatic weapons and grenades, and accompanied by three military vehicles:¹⁶⁷ 

At first we thought some enemies [cattle raiders] had come but then we realized it was the soldiers. When we saw the military vehicles we knew these were soldiers. We saw the soldiers and they started firing. They started spraying bullets. They killed six people from my village and two people from the other village.¹⁶⁸

A husband, wife, and three of their children were among the eight killed as they attempted to flee.¹⁶⁹  The deceased couple’s remaining child, a six-year-old boy, was shot in the hand as he followed after his family.  He told Human Rights Watch,

We came out of the village with our parents. I was following my mother and father and I got shot. My mother was shot in front of me and fell down. Then I was shot …. One bullet went through [my] fingers.¹⁷⁰

A girl, age about 10-12, was shot in the thumb of her right hand. She told us,

I heard the army vehicles and just ran out [of the manyatta]. I was trying to run but I saw that the soldiers were already there surrounding the manyatta. I didn’t even know I was shot until I lay down and saw the blood.¹⁷¹

The men were rounded up outside of the manyattas and questioned; all but one were taken a short distance away to the center of the parish, and from there some of the men were taken to Kaabong barracks.¹⁷² Cattle and goats were confiscated; while some were later returned, some were given to another community that claimed they had been stolen.  “Only one of the men from here was involved in [cattle] raiding, but they blamed us all and took all the cows,” a Kalodeke resident told us.¹⁷³

Soldiers also told the women and children to get outside, apart from a few who were tasked with opening up the granaries in the manyatta so the soldiers could search inside.

The young boy and girl who were shot and injured lay in the field for some four hours until the soldiers left the area and villagers helped them to a nearby health clinic.¹⁷⁴ Where firearms are used, international law calls upon law enforcement officials, to, among other things, “ensure that assistance and medical aid are rendered to any injured or affected persons at the earliest possible moment.”¹⁷⁵

Major Kulayigye, the Ministry of Defence/UPDF spokesperson, told Human Rights Watch that four civilian men were killed in the operation in Lokolia parish on December 7, which he described as a joint UPDF and police operation, when they tried to come to the assistance of suspects apprehended on suspicion of criminal activity. Major Kulayigye denied that any of the victims were women or children.¹⁷⁶ Members of the community told Human Rights Watch that the soldiers justified the shootings as necessary because, the soldiers claimed, a young man had opened the manyatta gate, permitting people to run away.¹⁷⁷

Nakot ward, Lobongia parish, Kaabong district, December 10, 2006

In a cordon and search operation in Nakot ward, Lobongia parish, Kaabong subcounty on December 10, 2006, one man was shot and killed by UPDF soldiers who returned his fire and a second, P.E., was shot and injured as he attempted to flee.

P.E. was inside his manyatta when soldiers approached for a cordon and search operation. “I don’t know the time. I just realized that the military was outside. The military said open. We opened the gate and we came outside,” he said.¹⁷⁸

P.E. told Human Rights Watch that a local defense unit (LDU) soldier opened fire on the soldiers;¹⁷⁹ separately, Human Rights Watch was informed that this LDU soldier had deserted.¹⁸⁰ P.E. saw the soldiers fire back at the LDU deserter, killing him, and P.E. started running: “I thought the soldiers would kill me. I didn’t have a gun. I just started running.” P.E. was shot three times by the soldiers, who were “showering the bullets,” and collapsed in the field outside the manyatta. P.E. regained consciousness only after the soldiers had already completed their cordon and search operation and left the area.¹⁸¹ An elderly man, R.P., who stayed inside the manyattaand (as discussed below) was severely beaten by soldiers as they searched the manyatta, recalled hearing many gunshots outside.¹⁸²

While the soldiers do not appear to have acted improperly by returning fire at the LDU deserter who shot at them, the incident raises concerns that the soldiers used unnecessary force against the other villagers.¹⁸³ 

Irosa village, Losogolo parish, Kaabong district, January 1, 2007

During a cordon and search operation on Irosa village in Losogolo parish, Kaabong subcounty on January 1, 2007, a teenage boy, F.E., and his father were shot by soldiers as they fled. According to villagers interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the soldiers came in the night:

We heard military vehicles and then we were running and soldiers started firing. Nobody helped us.

All men were taken outside. They first collected us all outside and then took eight in the vehicle to the barracks …. They beat us while they were collecting us from here, but they didn’t beat us after they took us to the barracks. ¹⁸⁴

One man, detained after the operation for five days in Kaabong barracks, attempted to hide outside in the bush:

I ran out and hid in the bushes. The soldier found me there and I was beaten on my back with the butt of the gun. The soldier said, “You stop.” He beat me twice on my back and kicked me and I fell down. The soldier was saying, “Get the gun! Get the gun!”¹⁸⁵

F.E. was shot, sustaining a fracture to his right femur and a ruptured bladder: 

[A] woman told me soldiers were coming so I started running …. I never saw the soldiers. I just saw the fire [from the soldier’s gun] …. As I fell, I saw the soldier move away. I landed near him and he left me lying there.¹⁸⁶

F.E.’s father was carrying his gun as he ran, and was killed. Residents of the village told Human Rights Watch,

Karamojong are cowards. When they see the government they start running. This elder [F.E.’s father] had a gun …. He was just holding his gun. He was running with his gun. We didn’t know he was killed until we saw the soldier had taken the gun.¹⁸⁷

According to other members of the village, when they realized F.E. had been shot, his mother started crying and convinced a soldier to take the boy to the hospital in Kaabong town.¹⁸⁸ F.E. remained hospitalized at least five months after the incident.¹⁸⁹

Loparpar village, Nakwamuru parish, Moroto district, January 6, 2007

According to R.D., an eyewitness interviewed by Human Rights Watch, during a cordon and search operation on January 6, 2007, on Loparpar village, Nakwamuru parish, Lopei subcounty, Moroto district, UPDF soldiers fired rocket-propelled grenades at unarmed civilians. During the operation, R.D. saw in the distance a herd of cattle and women with firewood. The soldiers began shooting and launching grenades at these people, and asked R.D., “Who are those people? Are they coming to attack us?” R.D. told Human Rights Watch that he told the soldiers that they were just women collecting firewood. ¹⁹⁰ No casualties during this incident were reported to Human Rights Watch.

Lotome subcounty, Moroto district, January 2007

On January 19, 2007, members of the Bokora community in Lotome subcounty, Moroto district, clashed with UPDF soldiers as the latter entered Nachuka village while tracking raiders who had killed nine women collecting grass in Nabilatuk subcounty, Nakapiririt district, a few days earlier. According to T.O., a resident of this village, the men began to run away with their guns when women in the village raised the alarm about the soldiers’ presence, the soldiers fired on the men, and the men returned their fire. People from nearby villages joined in the fighting, which lasted about four hours.¹⁹¹ T.O. claims that four soldiers and no civilians were killed in the clash; T.O. was not himself a participant or witness to the violence.¹⁹²

The following day, UPDF soldiers in an armored personnel carrier (APC) and another military vehicle known as a “mamba” reportedly arrived at six nearby villages, including Nakaromwae and Lobei villages.

Human Rights Watch was told by P.L., a resident of Nakaromwae village, that people from Nakaromwae began to run away, but were followed by the military vehicles. Two men were crushed to death by the military vehicles; according to P.L., when the villagers returned after the army left, they found their skeletons already picked clean by vultures.¹⁹³ (Human Rights Watch researchers were shown photographs of the skeletons.) A third man was stripped naked and severely beaten by the soldiers. P.L. told Human Rights Watch,

I did not witness the beating. But I came back that same day and we found him lying naked in the mud. I picked him [up] and helped him to the [hospital]. The whole body had swelling—they had really beat him.¹⁹⁴

One or more vehicles were reportedly driven through a manyatta, crushing one home.¹⁹⁵ Human Rights Watch researchers visited and photographed the village in early February; damage to fences and other structures was still evident. 

In Lobei village, Human Rights Watch was told by a resident, V.E., that people also began to run away as the military vehicles approached. Returning the following morning, villagers, including V.E., found an elderly man—a visitor from Moroto—crushed in the tire tracks of one of the vehicles.¹⁹⁶ According to V.E., soldiers had also looted the manyatta and taken away some of the elders to the UPDF’s temporary campsite at a nearby school.¹⁹⁷

A fourth man from another village, Angaro, was also reportedly crushed to death by the army vehicles.¹⁹⁸

According to R.A., an elder from Nachuka village detained at the nearby school, the elders from Lobei village were among 19 persons detained by the soldiers, some for more than a week. R.A., interviewed by Human Rights Watch and detained for two days, was tied in a “three-piece,” that is, his arms were bent at the elbows, and then his elbows were tied together behind his back, stretching out his chest: “It was so painful we thought we were going to die.”¹⁹⁹ Soldiers told the detainees to get the guns that were used in the confrontation. R.A. was also kicked and beaten, and forced to stare into the sun. The treatment improved within a day of his detention after a high-ranking officer arrived and the local council chair of Moroto district (LCV chair) also intervened.²⁰⁰

According to the UPDF, four soldiers were killed and five injured, and their weapons stolen, in an operation on January 22, 2007, to arrest the men responsible for killing the nine women in Nakapiripirit district. Four civilians were killed and eight were captured in subsequent related operations by the UPDF.²⁰¹ As noted above (Chapter III.B), at least two were subsequently convicted by court martial for the deaths of the nine women and were sentenced to nine and ten years’ imprisonment.²⁰²

Kotido subcounty, Kotido district, February 2007—Possible further episode of unlawful killings

According to an investigation by OHCHR, UPDF cordon and search operations on a kraal at Kapus dam behind the Lokitelaebu trading center in Kotido subcounty, Kotido district, on February 12-13, 2007, “caus[ed] confusion and casualties amongst the population,” with 34 civilians (one girl, 15 boys, and 18 men) killed in all.²⁰³ According to a list of 48 victims provided to OHCHR by a local community based organization—on which OHCHR relied in confirming the deaths of 34 of those listed—most victims died as a result of cattle stampede or were killed in crossfire between the army and the armed group.²⁰⁴ OHCHR investigators photographed two items of unexploded ordnance within two kilometers of the kraal.²⁰⁵

OHCHR reported that these operations were “precipitated by an attack on patrolling soldiers near the watering point, following a series of ambushes by armed Karimojong elements on 12 February 2007” and that “[a]fter two day[s] of operations, the UPDF stated that some 80 individuals had been injured or had died as a result of their offensive. The operations reportedly targeted kraals … close to the location where the patrolling soldiers had been attacked.” ²⁰⁶ Three road ambushes along the Kotido-Abim road on February 13 were reported in the national media. ²⁰⁷

Human Rights Watch interviewed UPDF spokespersons at the time of UPDF operations in the area. According to these spokespersons, their soldiers were on patrol on February 12 in Kotido district when they encountered herdsmen with a large number of cattle in an unpopulated area and were fired upon;²⁰⁸ a subsequent statement by the Ministry of Defence identified the area as Kailong,²⁰⁹ which is also in Kotido subcounty. The soldiers returned fire.  Four soldiers and seven civilians were killed in the encounter before the herdsmen were dispersed, abandoning the cattle.²¹⁰ According to the Third Division spokesperson, on the following day, February 13, the group several times fired upon the soldiers who had set up a defense around the cattle, and 45 armed civilians were killed by the army. The group moved deeper into the bush, pursued by the army.²¹¹ The UPDF Third Division spokesperson confirmed to Human Rights Watch that the UPDF used helicopter gunships, as well as rocket-propelled grenades and mortars in these clashes. According to the spokesperson, however, these were only used in an attempt to scare off the armed herdsmen and to prevent their escape to Kenya.²¹²

The Ministry of Defence/UPDF spokesperson told Human Rights Watch that UPDF operations on February 12-15 were not preceded by a cordon and search operation.²¹³ However, in comments published the same day as he spoke to us, the Kotido police commander explained in the New Vision that the violence was triggered by UPDF disarmament operations at Kailong dam on February 12,²¹⁴ and, as stated above, a subsequent investigation by OHCHR found that UPDF cordon and search operations on a kraalin the Kapus dam area on February 12-13 were precipitated by a Karamojong attack on UPDF soldiers and ambushes. In light of these differing accounts, chronologies, and place names, the relationship between the operations acknowledged by the UPDF and the cordon and search operations reported by the Kotido police commander and documented by OHCHR is not clear.

B. Torture and Ill-treatment

Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment are prohibited without qualification by international law and the Ugandan constitution.²¹⁵ The Convention against Torture, to which Uganda is a party, defines torture as intentional acts by public officials that cause severe physical or mental pain or suffering for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession, or for punishment, intimidation, or discrimination.²¹⁶ Cruel and inhuman treatment includes severe suffering that lacks one of the elements of torture or that does not reach the intensity of torture.²¹⁷ Degrading treatment includes treatment that involves the humiliation of the victim or that is disproportionate to the circumstances of the case.²¹⁸

The beatings and other physical abuse described below, occurring during cordon and search operations and during post-cordon and search detention, amount to cruel and inhuman treatment, and even to torture, where severe and accompanied by soldiers’ demands to “get the gun.” Particularly harsh conditions of detention, including deprivation of food and water, have also been determined to constitute inhuman treatment under international law.²¹⁹ This abuse also violates the guarantees of humane treatment and “respect for the inherent dignity of the human person” extended by international law to all detained persons.²²⁰

During cordon and search operations

In all nine cordon and search operations investigated by Human Rights Watch, victims and witnesses reported that men were beaten by soldiers.

These beatings were isolated occurrences in the four cordon and search operations in Kaabong district about which Human Rights Watch obtained victim and eyewitness testimony. For example, in the cordon and search operation in December 2006 on Nakot ward in Lobongia parish, two soldiers beat an elderly man, R.P., as he sat in front of his house inside the manyatta. R.P. told Human Rights Watch that he had stayed behind when other villagers responded to the soldiers’ demands that they “come out” and “bring the gun”:

When I remained, the soldiers came inside the village. There was one soldier who pointed his gun at me and wanted to shoot me, but the commander stopped him. Another group [of soldiers] came and said, “Why are you here?” I said, “I am lame.” These two soldiers started beating me. The soldiers knocked me with the barrel of the gun on the head. Then they got out a bayonet and started stabbing me. They stabbed me three times with the bayonet on the head. I was also beaten with a stick on the leg. Just young men were beating me. The [commander] had already said that I didn’t have a gun. I was even kicked in the mouth. I started bleeding. I’m still having pus from my nose.²²¹

R.P. spent seven days in the hospital.²²²

In Moroto district, victims from five communities described mass beatings of the male population. In cordon and search operations in three communities—Lorikitae parish, Lokopo subcounty (January 17, 2007), Loputuk parish, Nadunget subcounty (January 26, 2007), and Longalom village, Lokopo subcounty (September 2006), the pattern described was almost identical:  soldiers first rounded up the men outside of their manyattas and then subjected them to collective beatings, often accompanied by soldiers’ oral commands to “get the gun.” According to the victims, soldiers used sticks, whips, guns, and tree branches to carry out the beatings.

Longalom village, Lokopo subcounty, Moroto district, September 2006

At Longalom village, Lokopo subcounty in September 2006, ²²³ for example, victims told Human Rights Watch that soldiers conducting a cordon and search operation seated the men of the village on the ground outside of their manyatta. The soldiers asked the men to raise their hands if they had guns. Those who raised their hands were taken to a separate area. Those who remained behind—approximately 30 men—were made to lie down on the ground in a line. The soldiers began to step on and beat the men, moving down the line, saying “get the guns, get the guns.” The soldiers used sticks, including tree branches with thorns, and bayonets and other gun parts, to beat the men on their backs, at their joints, and on the soles of their feet.²²⁴ Even a man who surrendered his gun to the soldiers told Human Rights Watch that he was beaten twice by a soldier on his arm and back, until other soldiers intervened, saying, “Why are you beating him? He gave his gun.”²²⁵

The victims of the cordon and search operation also told Human Rights Watch that the soldiers made some of the men dig in nearby kraals in search of buried weapons. The men tried to tell the soldiers that they were digging up graves, but the soldiers forced them to dig. B.L. told Human Rights Watch that the soldiers “pointed guns at us and they were even prodding us with the guns, saying ‘quick, quick.’”²²⁶ The men dug for two hours, digging up four graves including the coffin of a man who had just recently been buried. When the soldiers saw the deceased’s body in the coffin, the men were told to rebury it.²²⁷

Nadunget subcounty, Moroto district, January 26, 2007

On January 26, 2007, soldiers surrounded a number of manyattas in Nadunget subcounty in Moroto district. In response to demands by the soldiers, a local community leader told Human Rights Watch that he made himself known to the soldiers and asked his people to come outside and surrender any guns. He then accompanied the soldiers as they searched each village. At one point, near to the center of the cordon, the man told Human Rights Watch that he was stopped and informed by the soldier, “We want to give you tea.” The soldiers began to bargain with one another over how many “cups of tea” to give him. After settling on 10 “cups of tea,” the soldiers made the man lie down and then beat him with 10 strokes.²²⁸

According to this man, then the soldiers began to beat the other men from the area with sticks and even their own shoes. Most men were made to lie down on the ground, and prevented from shielding their eyes from the sun, while the soldiers said, “Tell us where the guns are.” The soldiers then ordered the men to roll over and stepped on their backs.²²⁹  

Another man, N.D., told Human Rights Watch that he was made to dig in nearby kraals for hidden guns, and was beaten with a stick by four soldiers and kicked in the side.  Interviewed by Human Rights Watch over a week after the cordon and search operation, N.D. appeared barely able to move. He said, “My stomach is now so painful and hot. When I urinate the first thing that comes is blood.”²³⁰  

Describing the treatment of his village, the local community leader quoted above told Human Rights Watch, “I don’t know why I was chosen as a leader when the army didn’t even ask me if I knew which people had guns.”²³¹

No one from any of the communities subject to cordon and search operations investigated by Human Rights Watch reported resistance on the part of the community to the instructions given by UPDF soldiers during the operations, apart from the LDU deserter who was killed after he fired on the soldiers as they approached Nakot ward in Lobongia parish, Kaabong subcounty on December 10, 2006 (see previous section).²³²

During post-cordon and search detention

According to Human Rights Watch’s research, men are routinely detained in harsh conditions for periods in excess of two days, sometimes even for weeks, following cordon and search operations. Former detainees reported severe beatings and violent interrogations, along with deprivation of food, water, and shelter.

Detention in Kaabong district

In Kaabong district, Human Rights Watch interviewed seven men detained in Kaabong barracks after an early morning cordon and search operation in the Komuria ward in September 2006. ²³³

Komuria ward is located within Kaabong town council; instead of manyattas, households live in individual buildings and structures. As in a typical cordon and search operation, however, the soldiers surrounded the ward in the early hours. The soldiers gathered the men from inside or near to their homes—some by force—and brought them to a place near to the center of the ward.

As he was collected from his home, one man was beaten by soldiers with sticks as they said, “get the gun,” even though he protested that he did not have a gun.²³⁴ A 54-year-old man was at home with his wife and children.  According to the man, the soldiers argued among themselves, with some saying, “you leave this old man,” while others said, “no, we go.” The man was taken along with his son, who is in school grade primary six, that is, about 12 years old.²³⁵  A third man told Human Rights Watch that after he was taken from his home he was knocked down by a soldier with the barrel of a gun, and then hit twice with the barrel and butt of the gun.²³⁶

Two men recalled that the soldiers began to screen out and release some individuals as the men were gathered in the center of the ward. “[The soldiers] started asking, ‘who are you?’ People who produced identity documents [that is, the professional class, for example teachers and medics] were released.”²³⁷ Those who remained—a group of approximately 75 men and some school-aged boys—were lined up and instructed to grab on to the back of the shirt of the person in front of them; in this way, they were marched a distance of several kilometers to the army barracks on the other edge of town. They left the main road before reaching the center of Kaabong town and were marched through the bush.²³⁸ 

After having been marched to the barracks, the group was pushed by the soldiers into a circular pit, which was about as deep as a man is tall, surrounded by a short wall, but open to the sky:²³⁹

We were taken to the barracks and put in the half-walled house. We were really piled in like logs. When people were suffocating, then they took us out. They told us to remove our shirts and we were put in the sun …. After some time they removed the elders, medical people, and school children. Those of us who remained were put back in the hole.²⁴⁰

[The soldiers] made us go into the house but the house was too full to enter. They made us enter. They were beating us like cows.²⁴¹

[The pit] was too full already. We were piled like rocks.²⁴²

The men interviewed by Human Rights Watch remained in detention at the barracks for up to two weeks, during the course of which they all reported severe beatings by the soldiers while being interrogated about the ownership of guns.  I.N., detained for 10 days, gave the following account, which is representative of the group’s experiences:

[On the day we were detained,] [t]he soldiers asked, “Why are you here?” We said, “We don’t know why we are here.” Then they said, “You are here because we want the gun.” I said, “I don’t know about the gun.” They said, “You know about it.” I was told to pick a stick. I took it to the big man [the commander] sitting under the tree. The big man says, “You tell us about the gun.” If you say, “I don’t know about the gun,” the soldiers get the stick and begin beating you. They beat you here, here, here, here [pointing to his elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles]. They say, “Get the gun! Get the gun!” Then you become paralyzed and lay down and they beat you everywhere …. After three days they started beating again …. During the day, you bake in the sun. At night, we all stayed in [the pit]…. At night I stayed in a crouched position.²⁴³

K.A. described two days of violent interrogations, beginning the day after the men were first detained:

One by one, [the soldiers] took us under the tree and beat us. I had to take 25 sticks to the tree where the big man [the commander] was. I was running with the sticks and they were beating me as I ran. They told me to lie down [demonstrating lying face down on the ground with his legs bent up to expose the soles of his feet]. They beat me on my soles under the tree where the big man was sitting. The big man was the one giving the orders. “Lie down.” “Beat them.” You [were] beaten for 15 minutes, then they take a two minute break, and then you are beaten again. Some were beating me on the back saying “get the gun.” This went on for two days. We were beaten for about two hours each. You continue crying until you become tearless. Then they leave you …. After two days [during which time the men were made to take painkillers] they left us [alone]—they saw we were really sick.²⁴⁴

J.D. and O.L. described being forced to lace their fingers together around small sticks, which were then tied to their fingers with rubber bands.²⁴⁵ J.D. was made to beat his hands against the ground, and the soldiers also used other sticks to beat his fingers: “I felt the pain in my heart … My fingers are still in pain now.”²⁴⁶

I.N. reported that although their relatives brought them food, they were not allowed to see them, and that the soldiers ate any meat that was brought, giving the men only leftovers.²⁴⁷ H.A. said that he was told later by his relatives that the soldiers said, “We don’t want food, we want the gun.”²⁴⁸ According to six men, the soldiers poured water mixed with urine over them at night when they complained of thirst.²⁴⁹

Human Rights Watch also interviewed four men who had been detained in Kaabong barracks on other occasions; three were detained separately after cordon and search operations in Kaabong district in December and January 2007, while one—an elderly man, L.E.,— was simply picked up off the side of the road by military personnel in June 2006. Three, including L.E., reported similar experiences to the men from Komuria ward detained in September 2006, that is, detention accompanied by beatings and demands to surrender guns.²⁵⁰ The fourth, E.N., however, reported that although he was beaten during a cordon and search operation, he was not beaten at the barracks and that he was given the food to eat that his relatives brought to the barracks.²⁵¹

Detention in Moroto district

In Moroto district, men detained following three cordon and search operations—Lorikitae parish, Lokopo subcounty (January 17, 2007), Loputuk parish, Nadunget subcounty (January 26, 2007), and Lomuria village, Lopei subcounty (September 2006)—reported to Human Rights Watch similar conditions and interrogations as those reported in the Kaabong barracks.

Human Rights Watch interviewed three men detained in Matany barracks after the January 17, 2007 cordon and search operation in Lokopo subcounty, Moroto district.²⁵² They said they were marched from their homes to the barracks: “[The soldiers] beat us in the barracks and told us to ‘get the gun.’” We were kept in a fenced-in enclosure. We sat in the sun all day and were kept there at night too. At night, the soldiers would pour dirty water on us. It was the water they used for washing dishes.”²⁵³ One of the men was not released until February 2, spending more than two weeks in detention.²⁵⁴ Other members of the community reported that about 15 men still remained detained at the time of Human Rights Watch’s visit on February 3; of these, three were LCI chairs.²⁵⁵

Following the cordon and search operation in Nadunget subcounty on January 26, 2007, the local community leader interviewed by Human Rights Watch estimated that between 50 and 100 men were initially detained in the Nadunget detach (a military outpost), although some were released that same day and three were taken to Moroto barracks.²⁵⁶  One man, M.O., detained at the Nadunget detach for eight days, described being kept day and night at the bottom of a well:  “I was thirsty. [The soldiers] would not give me anything to drink…. We were naked in there even in the damp of the night. We were kept in the well from morning to morning.”  M.O. was beaten with sticks, and a soldier put a knife to his throat, telling him to “get the gun.” When M.O. told the soldiers that he did not have a gun, the soldiers gouged out skin from the bottom of M.O.’s foot with a knife. M.O. also described having his testicles squeezed between two sticks and pricked with thorns:  “It was so painful I collapsed.”²⁵⁷

A young man Human Rights Watch interviewed, O.E., had been detained in Matany barracks separately from any cordon and search operation on suspicion of gun ownership, until his father surrendered his uncle’s gun to obtain his release. O.E., said he was severely beaten while in detention:

I was badly beaten by the soldiers until my father got a gun from my uncle and brought it to the barracks. I was released after two weeks. They beat me on the buttocks with a stick. Three days were really bad. It was immediately after I was detained that they started beating me. They were telling me to get five guns. They accused me of being a gun trafficker. I was kept in a uniport [a round, aluminum shelter often used as police barracks]. Six soldiers beat me.

The wounds on O.E.’s buttocks were clearly visible to Human Rights Watch researchers one week after his release.²⁵⁸

C. Looting and Destruction of Property

Members of seven communities reported to Human Rights Watch theft, and, in some cases destruction of their property by soldiers during cordon and search operations.

During searches of manyattas, soldiers reportedly carried off money, radios, knives, clothing, pickaxes, tobacco, ox ploughs, containers of waragi (a local brew), and other portable property.²⁵⁹ Soldiers were reported to stuff their pockets with money, grain, and other items.²⁶⁰ As one victim said, they “took what they could carry.”²⁶¹ In some cases, soldiers also destroyed property, by, for example, pricking holes in jerry cans²⁶² or tearing down fences²⁶³ and grass from thatched roofs.²⁶⁴ In the cordon and search operation in Nadunget subcounty on January 26, 2007, soldiers cut into still-sealed sacks of sorghum and maize—food aid provided to the community—spilling their contents onto the ground.²⁶⁵

R.P., the elderly man beaten while sitting inside the manyatta during the cordon and search operation on Nakot ward in Lobongia parish, Kaabong subcounty on December 10, 2006, told Human Rights Watch that he watched as an armored personnel carrier (APC) crashed through the back of the manyatta and drove straight through and out the front.²⁶⁶ According to other witnesses, six homes inside the manyattawere crushed by the APC, and those seated in front of the manyatta had to quickly scatter out of the way to avoid being crushed.²⁶⁷ In addition to R.P., there were also some women who remained inside the manyatta at the time the APC was driven through it.²⁶⁸

As discussed above, Human Rights Watch also received reports—some from eyewitnesses—of the UPDF’s use of APCs to destroy a manyatta and to crush four people to death in responding to civil disorder in Lotome subcounty, Moroto district, in mid-January 2007.

D. Arbitrary Searches, Arrests, and Detentions

The procedural safeguards that ordinarily accompany law enforcement operations—including procedures authorizing searches, arrests, and detentions—appear to be absent from cordon and search operations. As the preceding sections have demonstrated, the absence of these safeguards leads to serious human rights violations including torture and other mistreatment. In addition, their absence violates internationally guaranteed rights to be free from arbitrary searches, arrests, and detentions.

Arbitrary searches

As a component of privacy rights, article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and article 27 of the Ugandan constitution proscribe arbitrary or unlawful interference with the home.²⁶⁹ Although a “house search for the purposes of administration of criminal justice” may constitute “permissible interference” with the home, ICCPR article 17(2) “requires that house searches ensue only on the basis of a specific decision by a State authority expressly empowered by law to do so (usually, a court) for the purpose of securing evidence and that they respect the principle of proportionality.”²⁷⁰

The searches authorized under the cordon and search policy as described by UPDF spokespersons and eyewitnesses with whom Human Rights Watch spoke do not satisfy the requirements of national or international law. Military orders purport to authorize these operations, but under Ugandan law, magistrate’s courts are normally responsible for issuing search warrants.²⁷¹

Arbitrary arrests and detentions

International human rights law also protects against arbitrary arrest and detention.²⁷²Among other protections, arrests must be lawful, and persons in detention must have the opportunity to contest their detention before a court.²⁷³

Consistent with these international obligations, Ugandan law circumscribes the powers of arrest and detention. In the context of suspected criminality, warrantless arrests are permitted “upon reasonable suspicion that the person has committed or is about to commit a criminal offence under the laws of Uganda.”²⁷⁴ Arrested or detained persons “shall be kept in a place authorized by law,” and “shall, if not earlier released, be brought to court as soon as possible but in any case not later than forty-eight hours from the time of his or her arrest.”²⁷⁵

These safeguards are absent from the cordon and search operations described by the UPDF spokespersons and eyewitnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch. Although the UPDF claims to have a list of gun owners, warrants are not obtained for their arrest, nor are these individuals singled out during operations. Those individuals who are detained are held in army facilities, which (as noted above, Chapter IV.B) are not “gazetted facilities” under Ugandan law, and thus are unlikely to constitute “place[s] authorized by law.”²⁷⁶

Finally, the release of all men within 48 hours as described by UPDF spokesperson for the Third Division Lieutenant Obbo does not satisfy the constitutional or international requirement of judicial control over detentions. The Ugandan constitution does not prescribe a 48-hour free pass to the authorities for the unsupervised detention of individuals; instead, it requires that arrested individuals “be brought to court as soon as possible but in any case not later than forty-eight hours from the time of his or her arrest.”²⁷⁷ No provision for judicial control over these detentions was described by Lt. Obbo, and, in fact, men were often detained for periods far in excess of 48 hours, as described above.

Lack of procedural safeguards leads to multiple detentions

In spite of assurances to the contrary by the UPDF spokespersons, Human Rights Watch found little evidence that the army is consistently providing those individuals who surrender their weapons with documentation of disarmament.²⁷⁸ Of the three individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch who surrendered their weapons during a cordon and search operation—all in Moroto district—none said they received any certification from the authorities.²⁷⁹ Neither did the young man O.E., mentioned above, whose father surrendered his uncle’s gun to obtain his release after he was detained in Matany barracks on suspicion of gun ownership.²⁸⁰

Active gun trade in the Karamoja region entitles UPDF soldiers to be suspicious that an individual previously disarmed may have acquired a new weapon. Arrests and detentions in the absence of any requirement on UPDF soldiers to show individualized, reasonable suspicion of firearms possession, however, mean that the same individual may be subject to arbitrary detention multiple times when soldiers disregard or fail to provide documentation of disarmament.

Five men interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Moroto district had been detained twice after cordon and search operations.²⁸¹ K.L., detained during a disarmament operation on Longalom village in August 2006, was detained once again following a cordon and search operation on Loparpar village, Nakwamoru parish, Lopei subcounty on January 6, 2007. This time K.L. was held in Matany barracks for two weeks: “I tried to explain to the soldiers that this is the second time to arrest me [and] I don’t have a gun, but they never listened.”²⁸²

C.T. surrendered his weapon shortly after being detained during a cordon and search operation in September 2006, but was nonetheless held for more than a month. C.T. received no documentation of his disarmament and was detained—again for a month—after a cordon and search operation on his wife’s village in October 2006. C.T. alleges that he was severely beaten during his second detention because he had no gun to surrender; he claims he was hit around the waist with a plastic rope and kicked in the groin with gum boots:

They change the army [personnel] so one group will take the gun and then another group will come again, get you and beat you up. You don’t get a paper or certificate to prove that you gave the gun. They used to give us cards to show we had given in the gun but when they find you another time [now], they tear your card or certificate and say “This has expired, you have another gun.” They don’t consider these certificates as valid anymore.²⁸³

Eleven men from the village of the local community leader interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Nadunget subcounty surrendered their guns during the cordon and search operation there on January 26, 2007.²⁸⁴ Some of these men showed Human Rights Watch letters issued by a local councilor—for a fee—documenting the surrender of their guns.²⁸⁵ The local councilor told Human Rights Watch that he had undertaken to provide these letters (after passing a bylaw, but without UPDF sanction) as a means to protect his people in view of the UPDF’s repeated disarmament operations against the same villages. The local councilor further told Human Rights Watch that the UPDF has told him he has no authority to issue certificates of disarmament and that its soldiers frequently disregard the letters he prepares.²⁸⁶

As recently as April 2007, members of parliament from Karamoja reportedly continued to press the Ministry of Defence to issue certificates of disarmament to prevent the detention of persons not unlawfully possessing guns, citing the alleged detention of 66 men from two villages in Nakapiripirit district, who—it was alleged by the members of parliament—had already surrendered their weapons in August 2006.²⁸⁷

E. Increasing Tension between the UPDF and Karamojong Communities

To some, a heavy-handed approach to disarmament and other law enforcement activities in Karamoja appears to have increased hostility and violence between Karamojong communities and the UPDF. One member of parliament was quoted in November 2006 as saying, “The army’s conduct of operations is creating more enemies where there are none.”²⁸⁸ This may also have contributed to the intensity of the confrontations that have occurred.

A local nongovernmental organization in Karamoja explained in its report that the violence at Lopuyo was “a result of dissatisfaction by the general public particularly the warriors who had faced brutal mistreatment during detentions in army barracks. The people all over Jie had expressed lots of anger over the manner in which the soldiers handled the disarmament.”²⁸⁹ Similarly, the January 2007 KIDDP draft explains, “The intensification of forceful disarmament by government in this current phase of the disarmament campaign has only led to a spiraling of not only violent inter and intra ethnic conflicts, but also direct confrontations between the UPDF and armed Karimojong warriors. This culminated in the infamous Lopuyo incident.”²⁹⁰

Resentment and fear of the government was apparent in interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch:

If the soldiers wanted to come and search that would be OK if it was done in a gentle way and the commander came inside [themanyatta]. But now the commander stays outside and it is only the young boys who come in. Then they deny to the commanders that this has taken place.²⁹¹

[The] Jie, Matheniko, Pian, Pokot, soldiers are all [the enemies of] the Bokora. You can’t manage all five enemies.²⁹²

We heard that they are doing this [disarmament] for five years. I think they are just coming to kill.²⁹³

As Human Rights Watch researchers approached the village of Lolemuyek in Lokopo subcounty, Moroto district, in a vehicle, women and children ran away. When they returned after a few minutes, they told the researchers they had run away because they thought the army had arrived.²⁹⁴

The government’s rhetoric has seldom sought a conciliatory approach to disarmament. For example, in his letter to the editor published in the New Vision newspaper on November 15, 2006, President Museveni acknowledged that a “large number of cattle rustlers have been killed in both Kaabong and Kotido since 29^th October 2006. What is the message here? The days of playing with the UPDF and the security of the country are over. Bring back the guns and live a peaceful life; otherwise, you will go to jail or, even, die.”²⁹⁵ The state minister of defence, Ruth Nankabirwa, invoking laws of war language, characterized Karamojong carrying arms as “armed and organised, with a command structure.”²⁹⁶