Global IssuesRIGHTS-UGANDA: Officials Complicit In Kololo Torture
A branch of the Ugandan government that handles its anti-terrorism work is responsible for extended illegal detentions, torture, and other maltreatment at a facility based in a wealthy suburb of the country’s capitol, according to a lengthy report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) Wednesday in Kampala.
The report, entitled 'Open Secret: Illegal Detention and Torture by the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force in Uganda,' is based on research between last August and February of this year. 106 cases of illegal detention were uncovered by HRW, which is based in New York.
'In more than 25 instances, detainees were also tortured or subjected to other ill-treatment,' said the report, which traced back detentions over the last two years and found that 3 detainees had died from abuse suffered and another detainee was shot and killed at home after his release, according to eyewitness reports.
The Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT) responsible for or connected to those responsible for the abuses pulls its personnel from a combination of military, police and intelligence organisations, and operates under the command of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).
JATT headquarters - which also serves as a detention centre - is located in the wealthy suburb of Kololo. Because rights groups are denied access to the centre, which is not considered a legal detention centre by Uganda’s constitution, HRW interviewed former detainees there about their treatment and what they witnessed.
'Some described being hit repeatedly with the butt of a gun; slapped in the head and ears; or beaten with fists, whips, canes, chairs and shoes,' according to the report. 'JATT and CMI personnel put detainees into painful stress positions and forced red chilli pepper into eyes, nose and ears, which causes excruciating pain. Some described being shocked with electricity. They reported watching others being beaten and tortured by JATT agents, as well as observing other people with bruising, swelling and wounds.'
Detention centres in Uganda are supposed to be 'gazetted' - placed on an official government register - in order to be considered legal. The Kololo facility, among others, does not meet this requirement. Illegal detention centres are often called 'safe houses'.
'The history of these kind of secret ‘safe houses’ has a long and quite horrible history in Uganda that dates back to the Idi Amin era,' Paul Ronan, a senior policy analyst with Resolve Uganda, told IPS.
Amin was the military dictator who ruled Uganda for nearly all of the 1970s. Harsh repression and brutal human rights abuses under his rule left more than 100,000 dead - by conservative estimates.
Despite the abuses highlighted by HRW having been reported to the media, government authorities and parliament, 'military and civilian leadership with command responsibility over JATT have so far failed to curtail the abuses or to investigate, let alone prosecute, those responsible,' said the report.
JATT operations as a counter terror unit involve it heavily policing the activities of rebel groups in Uganda, including the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Democratic Republic of Congo-based group tied to nationalist and Islamic rebels operating in western Uganda, and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), operating in Northern Uganda.
In its recommendations, the report asks the government of Uganda to cease the illegal detentions, compensate its victims, and investigate and prosecute those responsible. The report also calls on the U.S. and the UK - who both provide Uganda with military aid - to ensure that their aid is conditioned on respect for human rights.
'Foreign governments who provide training and collaborate with the Ugandan military and police on counterterrorism, national security and justice issues have a substantial responsibility to use their influence with the Ugandan government to stop unlawful detention and torture of suspects in the Kololo facility,' said the report. 'These governments should also urgently call on Uganda to grant detainees access to family members, legal representation and medical attention, and investigate and prosecute abuses by members of the security forces.'
The U.S. trains part of the Ugandan military for counter-terrorism operations, and those trainings involve human rights aspects as mandated by the Leahy amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act. But the amendment also prevents aid from going to governments where there is, according to the report, 'credible evidence that the unit has committed gross human rights abuses.'
The U.S. embassy is then supposed to monitor those units for violations, which the State Department claims it does. But HRW wonders how - in light of its investigation and others - these military units continue to receive aid.
'Given the often-cited allegations of torture and illegal detention by JATT and CMI by local and international human rights organisations, and by the Uganda Human Rights Commission, it is unclear how these individuals could have been eligible for U.S.-funded training,' the report states.
'The report recommends that U.S., the UK and other donors ensure that any military assistance to the Ugandan army be conditioned on the Ugandan military investigating and prosecuting those who are responsible for this torture and ending the culture of impunity that has developed,' Ronan told IPS.
There has been a troubling pattern, especially under President George W. Bush, where the U.S. has turned a blind eye to human rights violations by those considered allies in the 'Global War on Terror' - the now-defunct moniker that drove much of Bush’s foreign policy.
That pattern is especially acute in Eastern Africa. There have been accusations that - leading up to the political turmoil last year in Kenya - counter-terror resources were used to stifle political opposition. Furthermore, in a report issued last year by two UK-based rights organisations, the Kenyan government was accused of 150 arbitrary detentions in late 2006 and early 2007 where the detainees were later rendered in partnership with the U.S.
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service