Uganda: Army and Rebels Commit Atrocities in the North

Posted by Human Rights Watch
(Kampala, September 20, 2005)

The Ugandan military and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army continue to kill, rape and uproot civilians in northern Uganda with brazen impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

A brutal rebel group responsible for countless atrocities, the Lord's
Resistance Army continues to wage war against the Ugandan
government, whose undisciplined army has committed crimes
against civilians, the very people they are supposed to protect, with
near-total impunity. Today, as the war continues into its 19th year,
1.9 million displaced civilians in northern Uganda remain isolated,
ignored and unprotected, vulnerable to abuses by both rebel and
army forces.

The 76-page report, "Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and
Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda," documents how the
ongoing lack of accountability and civilian protection in the north
has fueled atrocities by both sides. In each of the displaced persons
camps visited, Human Rights Watch found cases of abuse by
Ugandan government forces as well as rebel combatants.

"Uganda has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate
and prosecute abuses by the Lord's Resistance Army," said Jemera
Rone, Uganda researcher at Human Rights Watch. "But the
Ugandan army itself has carried out serious crimes that demand
prosecution."

The International Criminal Court assumed jurisdiction to
investigate serious war crimes in northern Uganda last year after
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni referred the matter to the
court. So far, the court has failed to effectively communicate its
mandate to the people of northern Uganda. This has undermined
the court's credibility and impartiality in the eyes of many there.

In recent years, the Lord's Resistance Army has committed
atrocious crimes against the civilian population in northern
Uganda. These crimes include torture and mutilation, abduction,
sexual violence, forced recruitment, and killing of people it
considers supporters of the government.

"Children have been the primary victims of rebel abuses, although
adults have not been spared," Rone said.

At the same time, soldiers in Uganda?s national army have raped,
beaten, arbitrarily detained and killed civilians in camps. Some
beatings are inflicted for minor infractions such as being outside
the camp a few minutes past curfew.

"The Ugandan government has failed to pursue prosecutions of
military officers before national courts that could put an end to
such violations," said Rone.

Abuses against civilians by Ugandan soldiers in Cwero and Awach
displaced persons camps in Gulu district stood out among the 10
camps that Human Rights Watch visited in February and March.
Human Rights Watch found that the 11th Battalion of the Uganda
Peoples' Defence Forces (UPDF), based in Cwero and Awach
camps of Gulu district, committed numerous deliberate killings
and constant beatings of civilians during early 2005 when it was
assigned to those camps. These abuses were not the acts of just a
few undisciplined soldiers.

"Instead of holding the 11th Battalion's commanders accountable
for the atrocities committed on their watch, the Uganda army
transferred the unit to another area of the country where its soldiers
and officers can continue to commit abuses of different innocent
civilians," said Rone.

The Ugandan armed forces have failed to prosecute or otherwise
meaningfully discipline soldiers and their officers responsible for
abuses in the north. No effective accountability structure exists in
the camps. Reports of abuses by government forces rarely result in
any investigation or prosecution of military personnel. While there
is a military detachment in each camp, there are few police to
provide for basic law and order.

Human Rights Watch also found that local civilian officials, police
and the civilian criminal courts are not able to hold the army
accountable, although they have jurisdiction over military
personnel. Ultimately, the level of discipline, protection of
civilians and accountability rests on the will and personality of the
immediate commander.

"Justice in northern Uganda requires that the International
Criminal Court thoroughly examine government forces' crimes
against the civilian population as well as those committed by the
rebels," said Rone.

Human Rights Watch called for meaningful national prosecutions,
which would be a valuable supplement to the International
Criminal Court?s investigation. In addition, a broader truth-telling
process would give people in northern Uganda a forum in which
they could raise human rights abuses that occurred during the
entire 19 years of war. This process could work alongside
traditional remedies in which those affected wish to participate.

To view this document on the Human Rights Watch web site,
please visit: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/09/20/uganda11752.htm

Ugandan army abuses probe urged

Posted BBC News World
Tuesday, September 20, 2005

By WIll Ross
BBC, Kampala

The International Criminal Court in The Hague should investigate abuses in northern Uganda by soldiers as well as rebels, a human rights group has said. For almost two decades, Lord's Resistance Army rebels have been terrorising people in northern Uganda.

But Human Rights Watch said the very people supposed to be protecting civilians have been carrying out widespread abuses against them.

Uganda's army said HRW was exaggerating the levels of abuse by soldiers.

The report by the New York based group says soldiers in Uganda's national army, known as the UPDF, have raped, beaten, illegally detained and killed civilians in camps.

Executions

It adds that civilians often fear to report such abuse which it says leads to crimes being committed with impunity.

Ugandan military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Shaban Bantariza, admitted that some crimes had been committed by individual soldiers who had then been punished.


"They are trying to equate us with the rural terrorists - LRA," he said.

He maintained that they had a code of conduct and held court martials when necessary.

"We have executed some of our officers and our soldiers in those court martials for any offence they commit. So for us there is not such a thing as crime with impunity."

Atrocities committed by the LRA rebels are already being investigated by the ICC.

HRW also calls on the United Nations to dramatically increase its presence in northern Uganda to monitor what it calls "the widespread ongoing abuses committed by the LRA rebels and the Ugandan army".

During 19 years of war civilians have been killed, mutilated and displaced whilst thousands of children have been abducted and forced to fight for the LRA or be sex slaves for the rebel commanders.

Otunnu Says There is Genocide in North

Posted by All-Africa.com
Monday, September 19, 2005

Children's rights activist Olara Otunnu has called on the UN to reprimand the government over what he describes as "ongoing genocide" in northern Uganda.

The former United Nations Under-Secretary General and Foreign Minister in the Okello regime wants Uganda to comply with the measures contained in a UN resolution that demands countries to end atrocities against children.

"The genocide unfolding in northern Uganda is happening on our watch, and with our full knowledge. Why is there no action?" Otunnu said on Friday.

He was delivering the main address at the convocation of Lehman College, a New York university that honoured him with a Doctorate of Human Letters degree for his role as a leading supporter of the rights of children.

He reminded his audience that the "humanitarian and human rights catastrophe has been going on non-stop for 20 years".

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebellion led by Joseph Kony's has forced 1.6 million people into squalid camps and triggered what aid workers say is one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

Otuunu in August resigned his post as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict to crusade against human rights abuses in northern Uganda.

In July, he had led the effort that culminated in Security Council resolution 1612, which establishes the first comprehensive monitoring and reporting system to protect children in conflict situations.

The resolution includes a "naming and shaming list" of 54 offending parties, rebel groups as well as governments, which are cited for grave violations against children. The Uganda government is on the list.

Otunnu said that the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda had led to massive atrocities, destruction, and infant mortality and produced an epidemic of HIV/Aids.

But Defence and UPDF spokesman Lt Col. Shaban Bantariza dismissed Otunnu's claims. "Otunnu should graduate with his hypothetical degrees and leave the security for us," Bantariza said. "Vincent Otti (LRA's second in command) killed 250 people in Atiak in 1995; is that happening today?" Bantariza asked adding; "What we actually have done is to stop genocide in Acholi. Since March this year there has not been any massacre or abduction."

Uganda-CAN, an NGO working for peace in northern Uganda reported that LRA activities have visibly increased this month as UPDF steps up pressure on the group.

It reported several rebel attacks on civilians, killings and the abduction of at least one boy and three girls. Unicef estimates that over 12,000 children have been abducted by the rebels overtime and are still in captivity.

They are forced to fight for the LRA, made to work or used for sex. Up to three thousand more have become separated from their families while fleeing to safety and another 14,000 each night commute from their villages to Gulu town to escape abduction.

Recently, the International Rescue Committee said more than 1,000 civilians die every week in the northern Uganda conflict. But the government dismissed the claim.

Ugandan army says top LRA rebel enters DR Congo

Posted by Reuters
Monday, September 19, 2005

By Daniel Wallis
KAMPALA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - The deputy leader of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels has entered Congo after striking out west for the first time from his hideouts in the mountains of southern Sudan, Uganda's army said on Monday.
During two decades of war, fighters from the cult-like group had never crossed over the White Nile, supposedly because they feared losing the magical protection of their leader, the self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony.
Uganda's army said Kony's deputy, Vincent Otti, and about 50 fighters forded the river last week before burning homes on the road between the Sudanese towns of Juba and Yei.
By Sunday night he had continued west, reaching the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in the area of remote Garamba National Park, the army said.
"Otti is now in Congo. We believe he crossed sometime late yesterday," said army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Shaban Bantariza.
The army could not say why Otti had gone to Congo, although it appeared to be for purposes of evading capture rather than opening any new front.
Garamba is 170 km (105 miles) northwest of Uganda's Arua town, where Uganda's army chief held talks on Saturday with local officials and members of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, which now controls most of south Sudan.
Bantariza said Kony had not entered Congo with his deputy, and was still thought to be on the run inside southern Sudan.
"We believe he is hiding in an area controlled by Sudanese government troops," Bantariza said.
For 19 years, the LRA has terrorised isolated communities on both sides of Uganda's border with Sudan, uprooting 1.6 million people in northern Uganda alone and triggering what aid workers call one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
The group has no clear political goals but is notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating victims and abducting thousands of children as fighters, porters and sex slaves.
Under a 2002 deal with Khartoum, Ugandan troops can pursue the rebels into southern Sudan, but only as far north as the road between the Sudanese towns of Juba and Torit.
Senior Ugandan army officers have long accused some of their Sudanese counterparts of protecting Kony, and say last month the LRA leader retreated behind the so-called "Red Line".
They want Khartoum's permission to cross the road and attack him but say they are disappointed by the response.
The LRA, which is founded on religious symbolism, traditional rites and fear, has never given a clear account of its aims beyond opposing Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni.

Ugandan rebels fled into eastern DRCongo

Posted by Sudan Tribune
Monday, September 19, 2005

Sept 19, 2005 (KAMPALA) — About 50 LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) rebels commanded by Joseph Kony’s deputy Vincent Otti have crossed into the DR Congo’s Oriental Province, army commander Lt-Gen Aronda Nyakairima has said.

Nyakairima said this on Sunday 18 September after meeting SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) officers from Juba at Heritage Inn in Arua town on Saturday 17 September. He said notorious LRA commander Abdema was also part of the group that crossed the White Nile River for the first time on Tuesday last week 13 September, into the southern Sudanese town of Yei where they torched houses and abducted many people. "SPLA commanders have confirmed that Otti and his group crossed Yei-Malid road at Milo eight, 14 km from the Congolese border, towards Garamba National Park," Nyakairima said.

He said LRA chief Kony, who seems to be changing strategy, was suspected to have crossed the White Nile at a different location north of Juba. "We have also learnt that as the Ottis were crossing in the south, Kony was crossing in the north to an area we are yet to find out," he added. Nyakairima said another group led by Odiambo of the Bar-lonyo massacre, was by Saturday trying to cross the White Nile to join their colleagues near the Congolese border.

Flanked by Arua resident district commissioner Alfred Omony Ogaba and the UPDF (Uganda People’s Defence Forces) Overall Intelligence Coordinator in the north, Col Charles Otema, Nyakairima said the UPDF had reduced Kony’s arms and fighters in battles in northern Uganda and southern Sudan and that his new move was to escape.

He said the Government had put pressure on the Khartoum government to allow the UPDF hunt Kony in Sudan beyond the red line but negotiations were put on hold due to the formation of a new Sudanese government after a peace deal. Kony "death was in sight had we got permission to follow him past the red line. He is now fleeing for his life just like Lakwena did," Nyakairima said. The red line is the point beyond which the UPDF cannot cross. He said the UPDF had secured the entire northern region, apart from commander Okuti’s group of about 30 fighters, suspected to be in Kalongo and rebels in sick bays

Ugandan Rebel Attack Shocks Sudan

Posted by BBC News World Edition
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Ugandan rebels have crossed the White Nile river for the first time and attacked an area on a major road near the capital of southern Sudan, Juba.

More than 40 Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters burnt houses on the Yei to Juba highway in broad daylight.

Since riots following the death of south Sudan's leader John Garang, this road has been Juba's main supply route.

The BBC's Alfred Taban says authorities were surprised by Tuesday's attack and there is great tension in Juba.

The LRA insurgency in northern Uganda has been marked by the massacre of civilians and the abduction of tens of thousands of children.

Stealing food

Southern Sudan's Vice-President Raik Machar confirmed the attack and assured Juba's residents that security would be beefed up.

With the departure last month of northern merchants, whose shops were looted following the announcement of Mr Garang's death, little food has been arriving from the capital, Khartoum.

Former rebel leader Mr Garang had just been sworn in as Sudan's vice-president when he died in a helicopter crash in July.

Juba residents now rely on food being brought in on the road from Yei.

Attacks by LRA have been taking place fairly regularly around Juba in the last few months, but always to the east of the White Nile, our correspondent says.

In August, the rebels took control of several villages in the south-east harvesting and feeding on crops grown by locals, most of whom fled.

The LRA has bases in southern Sudan and for years was backed by the Khartoum government while Uganda offered support to Mr Garang's SPLA group.

But with the end of Sudan's civil war in January this support has officially ended and the Sudanese military has been allowing the Ugandan army to pursue LRA rebels inside Sudan.

Ugandan's Resist Anti-Condom Agenda

Posted by Human Rights Watch
September 13, 2005

HON. MAJ. GEN. JIM K. MUHWEZI
THE MINISTER OF HEALTH
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
UGANDA

RELEASE THE CONDOMS
FUND EFFECTIVE PREVENTION STRATEGIES
SAVE LIVES NOW

SEPTEMBER 2005

As Ugandans infected, affected by or at immediate risk of HIV infection, we have watched with increasing disbelief as the governments of Uganda and the United States have undermined the comprehensive prevention strategies responsible for reducing the spread of HIV in Uganda since the first case was detected in 1982, seeking instead to replace these with ideologically-driven and scientifically discredited abstinence-only programs.

Uganda is known throughout the world for having dramatically slowed the spread of HIV in the 1990s through broad-based HIV prevention policies that simultaneously encouraged delay in sexual initiation among unmarried youth; faithfulness and monogamy among sexually active couples; and use of condoms by all sexually active persons living with or at risk of HIV infection. Central to this strategy were efforts to demystify HIV and reduce the silence and stigma surrounding both HIV infection and prevention technologies, such as condoms. As a result, many people changed their behavior, including through sharp increases in consistent and correct use of condoms. Objective scientific evaluations now show unequivocally that condoms played a critical role in reducing both the incidence and prevalence of HIV in Uganda.

Today, however, the historical record of Uganda’s success in reducing HIV is being distorted to further ideological agendas. Since 2003, we have watched as the Ugandan government downplays its own proven track record in an obvious attempt to please international donors such as the United States. We have watched as our own leaders rewrite history and misleadingly attribute reduced HIV prevalence to adoption of sexual abstinence. We have watched as the U.S. government pours millions of dollars into HIV-prevention programs that provide misleading information about the effectiveness of condoms and that fail to equip people—particularly women&$151;with the essential skills needed to negotiate safer sex. We have seen billboards throughout the city of Kampala, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Office of the First Lady of Uganda and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, that exaggerate the failure rate of condoms and present “abstinence-until-marriage” as a complete HIV-prevention strategy, despite the fact that a large share of women are getting infected within marriage. We have seen Ugandan organizations stop supplying condoms either to gain or to avoid losing U.S. funding.

Over the past year, access to condoms in Uganda has been reduced dramatically. In late 2004, the government of Uganda issued a nationwide recall of Engabu condoms claiming these were defective, and causing a catastrophic shortage of the only condoms previously made freely available in government health clinics. At the same time, the government placed onerous new taxes and quality-testing requirements on all condoms imported for social marketing and for sale on the private market. This in turn led to price increases of more than 500 percent for condoms imported for these purposes, effectively eliminating the only other sources of affordable condoms in the country.

Today, condoms are largely absent from public clinics, and the government has undermined public confidence in the effectiveness of condoms against HIV. At this writing, an estimated 34 million condoms have passed post-shipment quality tests but remain impounded in warehouses in Uganda because of the government’s failure to bring them to market. We are struck by the sudden shortage of free government and other subsidized condoms at a time when the government is collaborating with the United States to expand abstinence-only programs throughout Uganda. We do not believe this is coincidental.

We believe that the mismanagement of the Engabu recall, the ongoing delay in re-supplying public health facilities with free condoms, and the failure of the Ugandan government to launch an educational campaign to restore confidence in both the Engabu brand of condoms and condoms generally represent clear evidence of the government's involvement in campaigning against condom use.

We condemn the diversion of valuable HIV/AIDS funds away from programs that provide a full range of HIV-prevention options and toward those that focus exclusively on abstinence and fidelity for HIV-prevention. We believe such approaches are not only unrealistic and scientifically unsupportable, but also threaten the lives of millions sexually active adults and young people, including married people, sero-discordant couples, and women in polygamous marriages. We also believe that such programs may have other unintended consequences, such as reinforcing early marriage and child marriage in keeping with an obsession with virginity.

We further condemn the false morality under which these shifts are being made. At a time when public rhetoric about faith, religion, and morality is at a fever pitch, the dramatic shift toward abstinence-only programs needlessly threatens the lives of millions of Ugandans now at risk of HIV infection and re-infection.

We demand that the Ugandan government take the following urgent steps in order to prevent any further deterioration of its successful HIV-prevention policies:

1) RELEASE THE CONDOMS: The Government of Uganda should release all condoms in storage in Uganda—for sale or donation—by the end of September 2005.

2) LIFT THE TAX: Repeal recent taxes on imported condoms, and male branded condoms available at their previous prices, before the Engabu recall.

3) EDUCATE THE PEOPLE: Take concrete steps to restore public confidence in Engabu condoms and in the effectiveness of correct and consistent condom use as an HIV prevention strategy.

4) ELIMINATE ABSTINENCE-ONLY PROGRAMS: Shift funding for abstinence-only or abstinence-until-marriage programs to programs that provide comprehensive information about safer sex and the correct and consistent use of all available methods of HIV prevention, including male and female condoms; provide individuals and couples with the skills necessary to negotiate safe, consensual sex; and address the underlying conditions, such as gender-based violence, economic and social disparities and lack of basic human rights that leave so many women and girls vulnerable to HIV Infection.

5) PROBE THE RECALL: Investigate the steps leading up to the recall of Engabu condoms, and provide a public explanation for the ongoing condom shortage and for price increases.

6) FACE THE PUBLIC: Hold a public forum in which concerned individuals have an opportunity to confront high-level government officials with their concerns about the shortage of condoms and the evident shift toward ABSTINENCE-ONLY approaches.

7. INTENTION TO SUE: As citizens of this country we believe that the continued shortage of condoms is a violation of our right to access of essential health commodities. While our priority is dialogue, we shall not rule out use of legal means if government does release the condoms by end of September 2005.

We highly appreciate the time you will take to read and respond positively to our recommendations and we pledge our full support should the US government put undue pressure on you. We urge you to put national interest first.

C.c. Office of the President.
Committee of Social Services, Parliament of Uganda.
Committee on HIV/AIDS, Parliament of Uganda.
Uganda AIDS Commission.

Signed:

As of September 13, 2005, this letter had been signed by fifty-four Ugandans and endorsed by fifty-eight individuals or organizations outside Uganda. To sign this letter in solidarity with Ugandans, send your individual or organizational signature (including name, title, affiliation, and country of residence) to: heps@utlonline.co.ug.

Uganda urged to release condoms

Posted by BBC World
September 2, 2005

Health and Aids campaigners in Uganda are threatening legal action against the government unless it releases 30m condoms which they say are in storage.
They say government policy on Aids has changed to reflect an American demand for a greater emphasis on abstinence.

Earlier in the week, Ugandan Health Minister Mike Mikula said government policy had not changed.

At the same time, a major donor says it will resume Aids funding, following earlier money management concerns.

The health campaigners, from 16 organisations, say an acute shortage of condoms is increasing the risk of HIV infection.

Last week, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria halted more than $150m of its grant to Uganda.

Aids campaign battle

But on Friday, a Global Fund official said its Uganda programme will resume.

"We need to set up a structure to strengthen the Aids programme in the health ministry, Global Fund operations chief Bradford Herbert said.

"The commission of inquiry will take a month to do its work. The suspension, I believe will be lifted at the latest in October."

Earlier this week, the government engaged auditing firm Ernst and Young in response to donor concerns about financial management.

Uganda is often held up as a model of how to fight HIV/Aids, with infection rates falling from 15 to 5%.

But recently Uganda's Aids programme was criticised by the UN's special envoy on fighting Aids in Africa, who said that Uganda - under pressure from the United States - was putting greater emphasis on abstinence to tackle the disease than condoms.

Ugandan denies any change in policy and the US has rejected the UN accusation.

Uganda's exiled ex-president to return home before end of 2005

Posted by Relief Web
September 2, 2005

KAMPALA, Sept 2, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Exiled former Ugandan president and the president of Uganda People's Congress (UPC), Apollo Milton Obote will return to Uganda before the end of 2005, a senior party official has said.

The vice chairman of UPC's constitutional steering committee, Okello-Okello, was quoted by local media on Friday as saying that the party members are doing everything possible to see that Obote would return to Uganda before this Christmas.

He noted that the exiled ex-president had started packing his luggage in preparation for his journey to Uganda.

Okello said that the party had finalized with the modalities to welcome Obote and is now waiting for the United Nations, the Zambian government and the Ugandan government to allow him to return to his home country.

In April this year, Obote's son, James Akena, returned to Uganda from Zambia to prepare for the return of his father.

However, the Ugandan government said that Obote is free to come back home on condition that he answers for the atrocities committed during his regime.

Obote, the head of the UPC, one of the leading opposition parties, is expected to field a presidential candidate in the country's general elections slated for March 12, 2006.

His return is expected to boost the UPC's support across the country.

Party officials however said that Obote will not contest for the presidency but will act as an advisor when the party comes into power.

The 81-year-old Obote fled to Zambia after his government was toppled in a coup in 1985.

As prime minister of Uganda, Obote received the instruments of power from the British colonialists in October 1962. He was sworn in as president in 1966, but was toppled in a coup in 1971.

In 1980, he became president again, after his party UPC won the elections, but was again toppled in a coup in 1985.