Ministry of Defence response to Human Rights Watch Report
Sep 29, 2005
Human Rights Watch: Voice of the Opposition in Uganda<br><br>Distorting the Truth: ‘Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda’<br><br><b>SUMMARY</b><br>The Government of Uganda is appalled by the latest report of Human Rights Watch ‘Uprooted and Forgotten
Human Rights Watch: Voice of the Opposition in Uganda
Distorting the Truth: ‘Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda’
SUMMARY
The Government of Uganda is appalled by the latest report of Human Rights Watch ‘Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda’ and rejects its conclusions as being unfounded, partisan and politically motivated.
In a deliberate attempt to distort the truth and malign the Government of Uganda, American researcher Ms. Jemera Rone claims that ‘the Uganda military and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army continue to kill, rape and uproot civilians in northern Uganda with brazen impunity’, thus equating the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) to the LRA, a persistent claim by the political opposition in Uganda.
The outrageous allegations are based on mainly anonymous witnesses and anonymous alleged victims, as vague as ‘one woman from Amida camp’ or ‘a man from Bobi camp’. Furthermore, the investigation mainly concentrated on two displaced people’s camps, Cwero and Awach, (out of 153 camps) in only one out of ten affected districts. Curiously, both are in the constituency represented by opposition leader, Reagan Okumu, who at a press conference in March 2005 made exactly the same allegations as the ones contained in the Human Rights Watch report .
The only three named, and thus verifiable, cases of human rights abuses in the entire 76-page report – the killing of David Nyeko from Pajimo camp in Kitgum, and the killing of Vincent Ayeila and Richard Kidega in Awach camp in Gulu – are so manifestly inaccurate and contradictory that the entire report becomes questionable and baseless.
Human Rights Watch deliberately ignored available military and police records of soldiers convicted and sentenced for offences as minor as theft of civilian clothes. Discipline within the UPDF is so severely enforced that several soldiers have been executed by firing squad in the past years. These cases, some of which are listed in this response, effectively dismiss the report’s principal claim that there is no accountability in northern Uganda and government soldiers enjoy immunity from prosecution.
In sweeping statements that read like a political pamphlet, the report further accuses the Government of Uganda of forcing the population into displaced people’s camps and then failing to protect them. Amazingly, the human rights body fails to mention that there have been no major LRA massacres in displaced persons camps in the past eighteen months, the last one being the Barlonyo massacre in Lira District in February 2004, thus showing that the security arrangement of the government has worked. It also omits the fact that over fifteen thousand abducted children have been rescued by the UPDF in the last three years, thus seriously reducing the rebels’ strike power.
Indeed, Human Rights Watch shamelessly claims that ‘The LRA’s 2005 offensive again targeted displaced persons camps and resulted in numerous atrocities’. Yet, both NGOs and local leaders acknowledge that the region has enjoyed relative calm in the past six months, as pressure by the Ugandan military has forced most LRA rebels to flee to Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo:
‘Reports from some organisations like the Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative (ARLPI) and Justice for Peace (JFP) indicate that there was reasonable peace in Acholi land when the UPDF reportedly pursued a group of LRA rebels beyond the red line in Southern Sudan… Non-governmental Organisations operating in Acholi have for the last six months been trying to get fair access to most IDP camps, with or without security escorts, as a sign that the region is slowly returning to normal.’
The unfounded allegations and distorted facts lead one to suspect that Ms. Rone came to Uganda with a prejudiced mindset, determined to find any information intended to damage the reputation of the UPDF and Uganda. Moreover, the report de facto amounts to an apology for the atrocities of the LRA, an internationally listed terrorist organisation.
The Government of Uganda cannot but conclude that Human Rights Watch has abandoned its impartiality and allowed itself to be part of a partisan campaign in the run up of the 2006 elections. Indeed, the American human rights body is acting like a mouth piece for the political opposition in Uganda.
The Government of Uganda therefore demands for the immediate withdrawal of the report.
Willful killing of civilians
The Case of Nyeko David:
In the case of David Nyeko, Human Rights Watch describes an incident of a twenty-eight-year old farmer who was allegedly killed in his house at Pajimo camp in Kitgum district on August 3, 2004 by a Local Defence Unit member. The government’s response, as published by Human Rights Watch, however, talks about a David Nyeko killed on 15 February 2005 by 11th Battalion foot patrol soldiers at Gwengdia village in Awach in Gulu district after he had ambushed the foot patrol soldiers.
Could Human Rights Watch have failed to see that these are two different cases, containing different dates, different districts and different soldiers? Nevertheless, the report continues: ‘Human Rights Watch found witnesses whose account sharply contradicted the Ugandan government version of events’. The case serves to prove the point that the ‘UPDF has unlawfully killed a number of civilians in northern Uganda’ claiming that they were rebels or rebel collaborators.
After investigating this particular David Nyeko, the government found a very different version of the story than the one given by anonymous witnesses in the Human Rights Watch report. According to a signed statement by the LC III Chairman of Pajimo parish, Mr. Akena Robinson:
‘Nyeko David Lapok was a resident of my parish from Kalam East village. On 3rd August 2004, at around 8.30 p.m., soldiers noticed movement towards the IDP camp by an unknown person suspected to be a rebel. I then heard the soldiers on guard ask in Kiswahili: ‘Who are you?’ No reply. Again, soldiers asked the person in Luo: ‘Who are you. If you are a good person, come out.’ The unknown person responded in Luo: ‘I am not coming’ and ran back into the bush. Afterwards, the person came walking again towards the camp from a different direction. The soldiers asked him again in Luo ‘Who are you?’ The person kept quiet and ran back. The third time, there came another movement towards the IDP camp. It raised suspicion to the soldiers on guard and they released bullets. I heard the soldiers say: ‘We have killed that rebel’ and I took interest to go and see… After I got the torch, I managed to identify that person as a son of Odwok Dison of Pajimo parish, Akwang Sub-County. I then called for other people like Otim George, Ocira Denty and others to carry Nyeko, so we carried him to the camp where he died later.
The account confirms a statement made by the Camp Commandant of Akwang IDP camp in Pajimo Parish, Mr. Lakima Charles, who visited the home of the deceased the next morning, 4th August 2004, where people had gathered.
‘I learned at his home that the late Nyeko David went outside the camp, crossed the road to the side of the Sub-county Headquarters which is on the Southern direction of the camp in the bush three times. The soldiers on night guard called him to come out if he was not a rebel but he continued running until at last he was shot at the end of the camp on the road going to Palabek. People who were around that end were called by the soldiers on guard to go and they carried him up to his home within the camp. He died at his house at around 4 am.’
This evidence totally contradicts the report of Human Rights Watch, quoting an anonymous witness who claims that Nyeko was shot in his house in cold blood by an LDU while he was conversing with some friends, and died instantly.
The Case of Ayeila Vincent and Kidega Richard
Vincent Ayeila and Richard Kidega are alleged by Human Rights Watch to have been arrested and summarily executed by the UPDF in Awach, on 18th February 2005. An anonymous witness, a ‘farmer living in Awach camp’, claims in the report that he left the camp with the two that day to fetch poles to build a hut. ‘Soldiers found them in the bush and shouted at them to stop, then they fired on the men’, the report states. ‘The witness managed to escape but the other two were arrested by the soldiers.’ How did Human Rights Watch know they were arrested when the only witness had run away?
Moreover, the report continues: ‘The following day, a friend went to the barracks to ask for the two men. Both nearby barracks denied arresting the two.’ Their arrest, in other words, is a mere assumption by Human Rights Watch, not based on any evidence, not even a testimony from an anonymous witness.
The assumption that follows is even more absurd.
‘At 4:00 p.m. that day, their bodies were found. “Both had been shot in the head and the chest, and both had been cut with bayonets on their hands and arms. One of the dead was still wearing gumboots and if the LRA finds these, they take them, so we suspect it was the armyâ€, said a friend.’
Why would anybody go and fetch poles wearing military gumboots? And how can one conclude, from the mere fact that one of the dead was wearing gumboots, that the LRA could not have killed them?
The more likely story, as provided by the government of Uganda to Human Rights Watch, is that Vincent Ayeila and Richard Kidega were abducted by the LRA and killed during a cross-fire between UPDF and LRA on 18th February 2005 at a place called Pukonyi. On the 19th February 2005 their dead bodies were identified in the battle area by the uncle, called Mr. Tokwiny Robert, who had received information that the two had been abducted.
Impunity and Lack of Accountability
The report repeatedly claims that abuses of civilians by UPDF in Northern Uganda are perpetrated with impunity, that no effective accountability structure exists in the camps and that there is a lack of police presence in Northern Uganda.
Effective accountability structures do exist in all displaced people’s camps in Northern Uganda. Apart from the normal Local Council structure, headed by elected leaders such as the LC I (sub-parish level), the LC II (parish level), the LC III (subcounty level), the LC IV (county level) and the LC V (district level), there are elected camp leaders, such as the Camp Commandant and the women leader. All of these are mandated to receive complaints and forward them to the relevant authorities, be it police, UPDF or the local MPs.
In addition to these structures, the President of Uganda appointed camp monitors in each district, in order to ensure that complaints and other issues affecting civilians are attended to.
Furthermore, the UPDF has set up human rights desks and appointed public relations officers in every district, where incidents can be reported. All complaints are handled by the Military Police and passed on to the Special Investigation Branch (SIB) for further investigation. SIB works closely with the Counter Intelligence Branch of Chief of Military Intelligence (CMI). If, after investigation, there is a case to answer, the investigation proceeds to military court and, where appropriate, to the civil police and civil court system. In addition, Military Police at all levels within the UPDF have a responsibility to maintain discipline and ensure that soldiers act in accordance with military and civil law.
Military and police records are available of errant soldiers who have been apprehended, convicted and punished by the Court Martials. The following are just a few examples of prosecution of UPDF soldiers between December 2004 and September 2005 in the district of Gulu alone:
• On 14th December 2004 Private Wani Richard of Lima Battalion in Gulu District was convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Division Court Martial for shooting and injuring a civilian woman, called Miss Asenjo Mary, in Bibia Trading Centre on 28th July 2004.
• On 21st December 2004, Lt. Fred Soozi of 47 Battalion was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging by the Division Court Martial for ordering the shelling of a mortar into a presumed rebel group, which accidentally landed into Atiak IDP camp, killing several civilians on 17th April 2004.
• On 22nd August 2005, Private Opio Denis of Mike Battalion was convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Unit Disciplinary Committee for theft of civilian clothes of one civilian called Miss Balengemo in Kasubi, Gulu District.
• On 26th June 2003 Lt. Kamure Mawa of 79 Battalion was arrested and is in custody, pending trial by the Division Court Martial, for killing a civilian, called Lumumba Patrick, in Amuru and torturing another civilian, called Okot Justine, at Olwal IDP camp, by burning him with a hot jerrycan.
• On 29th August 2005 Lt. Sulaiman Wafula of 75 Battalion was convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment by the Unit Disciplinary Committee for assaulting a civilian, called Ojok Okullu, in Purongo IDP camp in Gulu District on 3rd July 2005.
• On 23rd July 2005 Private Ojwang Nelson of 55 Battalion was convicted to five years imprisonment by the Unit Disciplinary Committee of 501 Brigade for extorting money from a civilian at Opit Trading Centre in January 2005.
• On 7th April 2005 Private Oryem Tonny was arrested for murdering a civilian at Kabedopong in Gulu district. The case has been transferred to Gulu police and is pending trial.
Soldiers have been executed by firing squad over serious offences, thus demonstrating that the UPDF takes enforcement of discipline extremely seriously. To name but a few examples:
• In 2002, two UPDF Corporals were publicly executed in Kotido for having robbed an Irish Priest, Fr. O’toole and later killed him.
• In March 2003, three UPDF soldiers, Private Wijire Richard, Private Kambaso Kinyongo and Private Okech Wilson were publicly executed in Namukora, Kitgum Matidi and Pajimo respectively, all in Kitgum district, for having killed civilians in each of these places.
• On 18th November 2003, Lance Corporal Omara Moses of Golf Battalion was executed by firing squad, having been convicted by a field Court Martial sitting at Ogur Trading Centre in Lira District for murdering a civilian called Serina Ongom at Ogur Trading Centre.
The claim that there is almost no police presence in northern Uganda is manifestly false. In the five districts of northern Uganda, the breakdown of police presence as given by the Office of the Inspector General of Police, is as follows:
Apac District:
2 police stations
16 police posts
100 policemen
51 Special Police Constables
Lira District:
4 police stations
14 police posts
180 policemen
151 Special Police Constables
Gulu District:
2 police stations
5 police posts
151 policemen
4 Special Police Constables
Pader district:
3 police stations
5 police posts
34 policemen
82 Special Police Constables
Kitgum District:
2 police stations
5 police posts
74 policemen
Equally incorrect is the allegation that the judiciary is not functioning. The Magistrates’ Courts, which handle the bulk of criminal matters, are fully operational in the Acholi sub-region. There have been two High Court sessions since December 2005 and a third, special session has been arranged for this year. Since April 2005, the High Court has disposed of over 100 capital offences in Gulu and Lira. A brand new High Court building has just been completed in Gulu. All this clearly indicates that the judicial system in northern Uganda not only functions, but is a priority to the authorities.
Forced Displacement
The Human Rights Watch report persistently claims that over 1.9 million in northern Uganda have been forcefully displaced by the government, which then failed to provide the promised security. Indeed, the report states: ‘Even less has been done by the government and international community to assist their safe return to their homes and livelihoods.’
The human rights body deliberately ignores the fact that the displaced people’s camps in the Eastern Teso region, as well as several camps in Lango region, have been dismantled in the past year, allowing for over six hundred thousand people a safe return to their homes and livelihoods.
By mid-2005, the official figure of displaced people, as used by both the Government of Uganda and World Food Programme, is 1.4 million, in contrast to the ‘over 1.9 million’ claimed in the report.
Human Rights Watch fails to appreciate the fact that most displaced persons have fled rebel attacks and run to the camps for protection by UPDF. It ignores the fact that no major massacres and abductions by the LRA have taken place in displaced people’s camps in the last eighteen months, the last one being the Barlonyo massacre on 21st February 2004. Not only did the security arrangement work, it also denied the LRA rebels of new recruits which would have given them the capacity to prolong and intensify their terrorist campaign against the population.
The report fails to mention that the Ugandan military has effectively provided security to most humanitarian agencies and their operations in northern Uganda, in particular the food convoys of World Food Programme, and to displaced people who go cultivating in their gardens to a radius of 5 kilometres around the camps.
The few and isolated killings by LRA that still take place in northern Uganda today are of people venturing into their villages and fields without protection by the Ugandan army.
Human Rights Watch furthermore keeps quiet about the well known phenomenon of the ‘night commuters’: children who go and sleep in the urban centres of Gulu and Kitgum where there is a UPDF presence, for fear of being abducted by the LRA. To quote from an article in the International Herald Tribune of 12th September 2005, by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast:
‘Each night before the sun sets, thousands of children march in grim procession along dusty roads that take them from their rural villages to larger towns. The children are afraid to sleep in their beds, terrified that they will be abducted by a madman who will force them into a marauding guerrilla army that hunts down their friends, families and loved ones.’ (
More fundamentally, Human Rights Watch is portraying the situation in northern Uganda as a war between two evils, amounting to an apology for the numerous atrocities conducted over the years by the LRA, an internationally listed terrorist organisation. As Cheadle and Prendergast accurately describe in the International Herald Tribune of 12th September 2005:
‘The reality of northern Uganda’s 18 year-old conflict is brutal. Under the control of a self-proclaimed messiah named Joseph Kony, the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army has terrorized the region’s civilian population. Kony, his few discipline, and an army comprised largely of kidnapped, tortured and brainwashed child soldiers have waged a campaign to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni and establish an ethnically pure state based on Kony’s distorted interpretation of the Old Testament.’
Rape and sexual Violence by UPDF soldiers
Referring to a Unicef sponsored report released on June 15, 2005 about rape and sexual violence in Pabbo camp in Gulu district, Human Rights Watch concludes that: ‘The lack of discipline within the army and the almost complete lack of accountability contribute to an environment and atmosphere in which women are extremely vulnerable to abuse, both from the UPDF and within the community.’
Human Rights Watch fails to mention the fact that, after publication of the Unicef report, the President of Uganda ordered an investigation into the allegations. An inquiry team, led by the Chief Political Commissar of the UPDF, Brigadier Kale Kaihura and the Presidential Deputy Private Secretary on Defence, Lt. Col. Proscovia Nalweyiso, accompanied by journalists, visited the area at the end of June 2005. It conducted meetings with Unicef and MSF representatives in Gulu and with the Gulu Committee on Gender-based Violence, comprising of Human Rights Focus, War Child, Gulu University and Gulu District Local Government. The team also carried out in-depth interviews with Local Councillors, camp leaders, women leaders and alleged victims at IDP camps.
According to their findings, contained in a report available at the Office of the UPDF Chief Political Commissar, all people interviewed at Pabbo camp expressed shock and disbelieve at the findings in the Unicef report. They claimed that relations between the civilian population in the camp and the UPDF were cordial, that many structures were in place where complaints can be reported and that, if widespread cases of rape had taken place, it would at least have been known to the women leaders.
The Unicef report claims it based its findings on police records. The inquiry team, however, only found two recorded cases of sexual assault by government soldiers in the past two years at the Pabbo police station. One case involved Private Ayella ‘Computer’ of 71 Battalion, who was arrested by the battalion Intelligence Officer in August 2004 on accusation of rape. However, a medical examination of the alleged victim at Gulu Independent Hospital found out that she had not had sexual intercourse for two weeks. Another case involved an LDU, called Kon Pirimon, of Olinga detachment in Pabbo IDP camp, who was arrested on 16th March 2005 for having assaulted a woman when she had gone out in the field. He was handed over to Pabbo police who forwarded him to Gulu Central Police Station, where he is awaiting trial.
Unicef subsequently issued a press statement emphasizing that the “report does not single out the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) of sexual and gender based violence but refers to men inside the Pabbo Internally Displaced Persons Camp including some soldiersâ€, adding “UPDF prosecutes individuals who engage in such crimesâ€.
Human Rights Watch, however, makes no mention of the Unicef press statement, nor of the investigation launched into the matter by State House, which shows that the government of Uganda up to the highest level was concerned.
Instead, the human rights body typically quotes anonymous, and thus unverifiable, sources, some of them of the same Pabbo camp, alleging being raped by government soldiers, and concludes:
“Soldiers prey upon women and girls they find travelling outside the camps out of necessity – to collect firewood or water or to sow, tend or harvest crops. In such situations they are risking not only an attack and abduction by the LRA but also rape and physical abuse by the army.â€
Northern Uganda ignored and marginalized
Opposition politicians have persistently claimed that Northern Uganda is being ignored and economically marginalized. This claim, however, is not supported by facts. One only has to visit Gulu to witness the economic ‘boom’ that is going on in the town today, demonstrated by the numerous construction projects and the over one hundred NGOs and expatriates operating in the district. Indeed, Gulu district has more tarmac roads, government schools and health centres than some Southern districts like Bundibugyo and Mayuge.
Besides disbursements from the Central Government under the Poverty Action Fund, as part of budget support to the local administrations, Northern Uganda benefits from specially funded government projects, in recognition of the fact that the area has been disadvantaged by the conflict.
Under the Northern Ugandan Reconstruction Programme (NURP), Phase I and II, a total amount of 70 milllion US$ was disbursed. The successive Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF), amounts to over 100 million US$ for a period of five years. By mid-2005, NUSAF had already identified and funded a total of 2236 local projects. Attached is a report of the total government expenditure in northern Uganda.
In addition, the Government has allowed and facilitated one hundred and seventy national and international NGOs to operate in the three districts of Acholi region alone. They are involved in food delivery, water and sanitation supply, shelter, primary health care, education, the rehabilitation of formerly abducted children and peace and reconciliation initiatives.
Conclusion
Human Rights Watch has presented a distorted picture of the situation in northern Uganda, thereby echoing claims by representatives of the opposition in Uganda as part of their political campaign in the run up of the 2006 elections.
By concentrating on a few dubious cases and only a few camps in an area known to be the stronghold of the opposition, completely ignoring other affected areas in Lango and Teso regions, and by disregarding encouraging signs that the conflict is ending, the human rights body has regretfully lost its objectivity and credibility.
Amama Mbabazi
Minister of Defence
Kampala, 23rd September 2005
Distorting the Truth: ‘Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda’
SUMMARY
The Government of Uganda is appalled by the latest report of Human Rights Watch ‘Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda’ and rejects its conclusions as being unfounded, partisan and politically motivated.
In a deliberate attempt to distort the truth and malign the Government of Uganda, American researcher Ms. Jemera Rone claims that ‘the Uganda military and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army continue to kill, rape and uproot civilians in northern Uganda with brazen impunity’, thus equating the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) to the LRA, a persistent claim by the political opposition in Uganda.
The outrageous allegations are based on mainly anonymous witnesses and anonymous alleged victims, as vague as ‘one woman from Amida camp’ or ‘a man from Bobi camp’. Furthermore, the investigation mainly concentrated on two displaced people’s camps, Cwero and Awach, (out of 153 camps) in only one out of ten affected districts. Curiously, both are in the constituency represented by opposition leader, Reagan Okumu, who at a press conference in March 2005 made exactly the same allegations as the ones contained in the Human Rights Watch report .
The only three named, and thus verifiable, cases of human rights abuses in the entire 76-page report – the killing of David Nyeko from Pajimo camp in Kitgum, and the killing of Vincent Ayeila and Richard Kidega in Awach camp in Gulu – are so manifestly inaccurate and contradictory that the entire report becomes questionable and baseless.
Human Rights Watch deliberately ignored available military and police records of soldiers convicted and sentenced for offences as minor as theft of civilian clothes. Discipline within the UPDF is so severely enforced that several soldiers have been executed by firing squad in the past years. These cases, some of which are listed in this response, effectively dismiss the report’s principal claim that there is no accountability in northern Uganda and government soldiers enjoy immunity from prosecution.
In sweeping statements that read like a political pamphlet, the report further accuses the Government of Uganda of forcing the population into displaced people’s camps and then failing to protect them. Amazingly, the human rights body fails to mention that there have been no major LRA massacres in displaced persons camps in the past eighteen months, the last one being the Barlonyo massacre in Lira District in February 2004, thus showing that the security arrangement of the government has worked. It also omits the fact that over fifteen thousand abducted children have been rescued by the UPDF in the last three years, thus seriously reducing the rebels’ strike power.
Indeed, Human Rights Watch shamelessly claims that ‘The LRA’s 2005 offensive again targeted displaced persons camps and resulted in numerous atrocities’. Yet, both NGOs and local leaders acknowledge that the region has enjoyed relative calm in the past six months, as pressure by the Ugandan military has forced most LRA rebels to flee to Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo:
‘Reports from some organisations like the Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative (ARLPI) and Justice for Peace (JFP) indicate that there was reasonable peace in Acholi land when the UPDF reportedly pursued a group of LRA rebels beyond the red line in Southern Sudan… Non-governmental Organisations operating in Acholi have for the last six months been trying to get fair access to most IDP camps, with or without security escorts, as a sign that the region is slowly returning to normal.’
The unfounded allegations and distorted facts lead one to suspect that Ms. Rone came to Uganda with a prejudiced mindset, determined to find any information intended to damage the reputation of the UPDF and Uganda. Moreover, the report de facto amounts to an apology for the atrocities of the LRA, an internationally listed terrorist organisation.
The Government of Uganda cannot but conclude that Human Rights Watch has abandoned its impartiality and allowed itself to be part of a partisan campaign in the run up of the 2006 elections. Indeed, the American human rights body is acting like a mouth piece for the political opposition in Uganda.
The Government of Uganda therefore demands for the immediate withdrawal of the report.
Willful killing of civilians
The Case of Nyeko David:
In the case of David Nyeko, Human Rights Watch describes an incident of a twenty-eight-year old farmer who was allegedly killed in his house at Pajimo camp in Kitgum district on August 3, 2004 by a Local Defence Unit member. The government’s response, as published by Human Rights Watch, however, talks about a David Nyeko killed on 15 February 2005 by 11th Battalion foot patrol soldiers at Gwengdia village in Awach in Gulu district after he had ambushed the foot patrol soldiers.
Could Human Rights Watch have failed to see that these are two different cases, containing different dates, different districts and different soldiers? Nevertheless, the report continues: ‘Human Rights Watch found witnesses whose account sharply contradicted the Ugandan government version of events’. The case serves to prove the point that the ‘UPDF has unlawfully killed a number of civilians in northern Uganda’ claiming that they were rebels or rebel collaborators.
After investigating this particular David Nyeko, the government found a very different version of the story than the one given by anonymous witnesses in the Human Rights Watch report. According to a signed statement by the LC III Chairman of Pajimo parish, Mr. Akena Robinson:
‘Nyeko David Lapok was a resident of my parish from Kalam East village. On 3rd August 2004, at around 8.30 p.m., soldiers noticed movement towards the IDP camp by an unknown person suspected to be a rebel. I then heard the soldiers on guard ask in Kiswahili: ‘Who are you?’ No reply. Again, soldiers asked the person in Luo: ‘Who are you. If you are a good person, come out.’ The unknown person responded in Luo: ‘I am not coming’ and ran back into the bush. Afterwards, the person came walking again towards the camp from a different direction. The soldiers asked him again in Luo ‘Who are you?’ The person kept quiet and ran back. The third time, there came another movement towards the IDP camp. It raised suspicion to the soldiers on guard and they released bullets. I heard the soldiers say: ‘We have killed that rebel’ and I took interest to go and see… After I got the torch, I managed to identify that person as a son of Odwok Dison of Pajimo parish, Akwang Sub-County. I then called for other people like Otim George, Ocira Denty and others to carry Nyeko, so we carried him to the camp where he died later.
The account confirms a statement made by the Camp Commandant of Akwang IDP camp in Pajimo Parish, Mr. Lakima Charles, who visited the home of the deceased the next morning, 4th August 2004, where people had gathered.
‘I learned at his home that the late Nyeko David went outside the camp, crossed the road to the side of the Sub-county Headquarters which is on the Southern direction of the camp in the bush three times. The soldiers on night guard called him to come out if he was not a rebel but he continued running until at last he was shot at the end of the camp on the road going to Palabek. People who were around that end were called by the soldiers on guard to go and they carried him up to his home within the camp. He died at his house at around 4 am.’
This evidence totally contradicts the report of Human Rights Watch, quoting an anonymous witness who claims that Nyeko was shot in his house in cold blood by an LDU while he was conversing with some friends, and died instantly.
The Case of Ayeila Vincent and Kidega Richard
Vincent Ayeila and Richard Kidega are alleged by Human Rights Watch to have been arrested and summarily executed by the UPDF in Awach, on 18th February 2005. An anonymous witness, a ‘farmer living in Awach camp’, claims in the report that he left the camp with the two that day to fetch poles to build a hut. ‘Soldiers found them in the bush and shouted at them to stop, then they fired on the men’, the report states. ‘The witness managed to escape but the other two were arrested by the soldiers.’ How did Human Rights Watch know they were arrested when the only witness had run away?
Moreover, the report continues: ‘The following day, a friend went to the barracks to ask for the two men. Both nearby barracks denied arresting the two.’ Their arrest, in other words, is a mere assumption by Human Rights Watch, not based on any evidence, not even a testimony from an anonymous witness.
The assumption that follows is even more absurd.
‘At 4:00 p.m. that day, their bodies were found. “Both had been shot in the head and the chest, and both had been cut with bayonets on their hands and arms. One of the dead was still wearing gumboots and if the LRA finds these, they take them, so we suspect it was the armyâ€, said a friend.’
Why would anybody go and fetch poles wearing military gumboots? And how can one conclude, from the mere fact that one of the dead was wearing gumboots, that the LRA could not have killed them?
The more likely story, as provided by the government of Uganda to Human Rights Watch, is that Vincent Ayeila and Richard Kidega were abducted by the LRA and killed during a cross-fire between UPDF and LRA on 18th February 2005 at a place called Pukonyi. On the 19th February 2005 their dead bodies were identified in the battle area by the uncle, called Mr. Tokwiny Robert, who had received information that the two had been abducted.
Impunity and Lack of Accountability
The report repeatedly claims that abuses of civilians by UPDF in Northern Uganda are perpetrated with impunity, that no effective accountability structure exists in the camps and that there is a lack of police presence in Northern Uganda.
Effective accountability structures do exist in all displaced people’s camps in Northern Uganda. Apart from the normal Local Council structure, headed by elected leaders such as the LC I (sub-parish level), the LC II (parish level), the LC III (subcounty level), the LC IV (county level) and the LC V (district level), there are elected camp leaders, such as the Camp Commandant and the women leader. All of these are mandated to receive complaints and forward them to the relevant authorities, be it police, UPDF or the local MPs.
In addition to these structures, the President of Uganda appointed camp monitors in each district, in order to ensure that complaints and other issues affecting civilians are attended to.
Furthermore, the UPDF has set up human rights desks and appointed public relations officers in every district, where incidents can be reported. All complaints are handled by the Military Police and passed on to the Special Investigation Branch (SIB) for further investigation. SIB works closely with the Counter Intelligence Branch of Chief of Military Intelligence (CMI). If, after investigation, there is a case to answer, the investigation proceeds to military court and, where appropriate, to the civil police and civil court system. In addition, Military Police at all levels within the UPDF have a responsibility to maintain discipline and ensure that soldiers act in accordance with military and civil law.
Military and police records are available of errant soldiers who have been apprehended, convicted and punished by the Court Martials. The following are just a few examples of prosecution of UPDF soldiers between December 2004 and September 2005 in the district of Gulu alone:
• On 14th December 2004 Private Wani Richard of Lima Battalion in Gulu District was convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Division Court Martial for shooting and injuring a civilian woman, called Miss Asenjo Mary, in Bibia Trading Centre on 28th July 2004.
• On 21st December 2004, Lt. Fred Soozi of 47 Battalion was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging by the Division Court Martial for ordering the shelling of a mortar into a presumed rebel group, which accidentally landed into Atiak IDP camp, killing several civilians on 17th April 2004.
• On 22nd August 2005, Private Opio Denis of Mike Battalion was convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Unit Disciplinary Committee for theft of civilian clothes of one civilian called Miss Balengemo in Kasubi, Gulu District.
• On 26th June 2003 Lt. Kamure Mawa of 79 Battalion was arrested and is in custody, pending trial by the Division Court Martial, for killing a civilian, called Lumumba Patrick, in Amuru and torturing another civilian, called Okot Justine, at Olwal IDP camp, by burning him with a hot jerrycan.
• On 29th August 2005 Lt. Sulaiman Wafula of 75 Battalion was convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment by the Unit Disciplinary Committee for assaulting a civilian, called Ojok Okullu, in Purongo IDP camp in Gulu District on 3rd July 2005.
• On 23rd July 2005 Private Ojwang Nelson of 55 Battalion was convicted to five years imprisonment by the Unit Disciplinary Committee of 501 Brigade for extorting money from a civilian at Opit Trading Centre in January 2005.
• On 7th April 2005 Private Oryem Tonny was arrested for murdering a civilian at Kabedopong in Gulu district. The case has been transferred to Gulu police and is pending trial.
Soldiers have been executed by firing squad over serious offences, thus demonstrating that the UPDF takes enforcement of discipline extremely seriously. To name but a few examples:
• In 2002, two UPDF Corporals were publicly executed in Kotido for having robbed an Irish Priest, Fr. O’toole and later killed him.
• In March 2003, three UPDF soldiers, Private Wijire Richard, Private Kambaso Kinyongo and Private Okech Wilson were publicly executed in Namukora, Kitgum Matidi and Pajimo respectively, all in Kitgum district, for having killed civilians in each of these places.
• On 18th November 2003, Lance Corporal Omara Moses of Golf Battalion was executed by firing squad, having been convicted by a field Court Martial sitting at Ogur Trading Centre in Lira District for murdering a civilian called Serina Ongom at Ogur Trading Centre.
The claim that there is almost no police presence in northern Uganda is manifestly false. In the five districts of northern Uganda, the breakdown of police presence as given by the Office of the Inspector General of Police, is as follows:
Apac District:
2 police stations
16 police posts
100 policemen
51 Special Police Constables
Lira District:
4 police stations
14 police posts
180 policemen
151 Special Police Constables
Gulu District:
2 police stations
5 police posts
151 policemen
4 Special Police Constables
Pader district:
3 police stations
5 police posts
34 policemen
82 Special Police Constables
Kitgum District:
2 police stations
5 police posts
74 policemen
Equally incorrect is the allegation that the judiciary is not functioning. The Magistrates’ Courts, which handle the bulk of criminal matters, are fully operational in the Acholi sub-region. There have been two High Court sessions since December 2005 and a third, special session has been arranged for this year. Since April 2005, the High Court has disposed of over 100 capital offences in Gulu and Lira. A brand new High Court building has just been completed in Gulu. All this clearly indicates that the judicial system in northern Uganda not only functions, but is a priority to the authorities.
Forced Displacement
The Human Rights Watch report persistently claims that over 1.9 million in northern Uganda have been forcefully displaced by the government, which then failed to provide the promised security. Indeed, the report states: ‘Even less has been done by the government and international community to assist their safe return to their homes and livelihoods.’
The human rights body deliberately ignores the fact that the displaced people’s camps in the Eastern Teso region, as well as several camps in Lango region, have been dismantled in the past year, allowing for over six hundred thousand people a safe return to their homes and livelihoods.
By mid-2005, the official figure of displaced people, as used by both the Government of Uganda and World Food Programme, is 1.4 million, in contrast to the ‘over 1.9 million’ claimed in the report.
Human Rights Watch fails to appreciate the fact that most displaced persons have fled rebel attacks and run to the camps for protection by UPDF. It ignores the fact that no major massacres and abductions by the LRA have taken place in displaced people’s camps in the last eighteen months, the last one being the Barlonyo massacre on 21st February 2004. Not only did the security arrangement work, it also denied the LRA rebels of new recruits which would have given them the capacity to prolong and intensify their terrorist campaign against the population.
The report fails to mention that the Ugandan military has effectively provided security to most humanitarian agencies and their operations in northern Uganda, in particular the food convoys of World Food Programme, and to displaced people who go cultivating in their gardens to a radius of 5 kilometres around the camps.
The few and isolated killings by LRA that still take place in northern Uganda today are of people venturing into their villages and fields without protection by the Ugandan army.
Human Rights Watch furthermore keeps quiet about the well known phenomenon of the ‘night commuters’: children who go and sleep in the urban centres of Gulu and Kitgum where there is a UPDF presence, for fear of being abducted by the LRA. To quote from an article in the International Herald Tribune of 12th September 2005, by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast:
‘Each night before the sun sets, thousands of children march in grim procession along dusty roads that take them from their rural villages to larger towns. The children are afraid to sleep in their beds, terrified that they will be abducted by a madman who will force them into a marauding guerrilla army that hunts down their friends, families and loved ones.’ (
More fundamentally, Human Rights Watch is portraying the situation in northern Uganda as a war between two evils, amounting to an apology for the numerous atrocities conducted over the years by the LRA, an internationally listed terrorist organisation. As Cheadle and Prendergast accurately describe in the International Herald Tribune of 12th September 2005:
‘The reality of northern Uganda’s 18 year-old conflict is brutal. Under the control of a self-proclaimed messiah named Joseph Kony, the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army has terrorized the region’s civilian population. Kony, his few discipline, and an army comprised largely of kidnapped, tortured and brainwashed child soldiers have waged a campaign to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni and establish an ethnically pure state based on Kony’s distorted interpretation of the Old Testament.’
Rape and sexual Violence by UPDF soldiers
Referring to a Unicef sponsored report released on June 15, 2005 about rape and sexual violence in Pabbo camp in Gulu district, Human Rights Watch concludes that: ‘The lack of discipline within the army and the almost complete lack of accountability contribute to an environment and atmosphere in which women are extremely vulnerable to abuse, both from the UPDF and within the community.’
Human Rights Watch fails to mention the fact that, after publication of the Unicef report, the President of Uganda ordered an investigation into the allegations. An inquiry team, led by the Chief Political Commissar of the UPDF, Brigadier Kale Kaihura and the Presidential Deputy Private Secretary on Defence, Lt. Col. Proscovia Nalweyiso, accompanied by journalists, visited the area at the end of June 2005. It conducted meetings with Unicef and MSF representatives in Gulu and with the Gulu Committee on Gender-based Violence, comprising of Human Rights Focus, War Child, Gulu University and Gulu District Local Government. The team also carried out in-depth interviews with Local Councillors, camp leaders, women leaders and alleged victims at IDP camps.
According to their findings, contained in a report available at the Office of the UPDF Chief Political Commissar, all people interviewed at Pabbo camp expressed shock and disbelieve at the findings in the Unicef report. They claimed that relations between the civilian population in the camp and the UPDF were cordial, that many structures were in place where complaints can be reported and that, if widespread cases of rape had taken place, it would at least have been known to the women leaders.
The Unicef report claims it based its findings on police records. The inquiry team, however, only found two recorded cases of sexual assault by government soldiers in the past two years at the Pabbo police station. One case involved Private Ayella ‘Computer’ of 71 Battalion, who was arrested by the battalion Intelligence Officer in August 2004 on accusation of rape. However, a medical examination of the alleged victim at Gulu Independent Hospital found out that she had not had sexual intercourse for two weeks. Another case involved an LDU, called Kon Pirimon, of Olinga detachment in Pabbo IDP camp, who was arrested on 16th March 2005 for having assaulted a woman when she had gone out in the field. He was handed over to Pabbo police who forwarded him to Gulu Central Police Station, where he is awaiting trial.
Unicef subsequently issued a press statement emphasizing that the “report does not single out the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) of sexual and gender based violence but refers to men inside the Pabbo Internally Displaced Persons Camp including some soldiersâ€, adding “UPDF prosecutes individuals who engage in such crimesâ€.
Human Rights Watch, however, makes no mention of the Unicef press statement, nor of the investigation launched into the matter by State House, which shows that the government of Uganda up to the highest level was concerned.
Instead, the human rights body typically quotes anonymous, and thus unverifiable, sources, some of them of the same Pabbo camp, alleging being raped by government soldiers, and concludes:
“Soldiers prey upon women and girls they find travelling outside the camps out of necessity – to collect firewood or water or to sow, tend or harvest crops. In such situations they are risking not only an attack and abduction by the LRA but also rape and physical abuse by the army.â€
Northern Uganda ignored and marginalized
Opposition politicians have persistently claimed that Northern Uganda is being ignored and economically marginalized. This claim, however, is not supported by facts. One only has to visit Gulu to witness the economic ‘boom’ that is going on in the town today, demonstrated by the numerous construction projects and the over one hundred NGOs and expatriates operating in the district. Indeed, Gulu district has more tarmac roads, government schools and health centres than some Southern districts like Bundibugyo and Mayuge.
Besides disbursements from the Central Government under the Poverty Action Fund, as part of budget support to the local administrations, Northern Uganda benefits from specially funded government projects, in recognition of the fact that the area has been disadvantaged by the conflict.
Under the Northern Ugandan Reconstruction Programme (NURP), Phase I and II, a total amount of 70 milllion US$ was disbursed. The successive Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF), amounts to over 100 million US$ for a period of five years. By mid-2005, NUSAF had already identified and funded a total of 2236 local projects. Attached is a report of the total government expenditure in northern Uganda.
In addition, the Government has allowed and facilitated one hundred and seventy national and international NGOs to operate in the three districts of Acholi region alone. They are involved in food delivery, water and sanitation supply, shelter, primary health care, education, the rehabilitation of formerly abducted children and peace and reconciliation initiatives.
Conclusion
Human Rights Watch has presented a distorted picture of the situation in northern Uganda, thereby echoing claims by representatives of the opposition in Uganda as part of their political campaign in the run up of the 2006 elections.
By concentrating on a few dubious cases and only a few camps in an area known to be the stronghold of the opposition, completely ignoring other affected areas in Lango and Teso regions, and by disregarding encouraging signs that the conflict is ending, the human rights body has regretfully lost its objectivity and credibility.
Amama Mbabazi
Minister of Defence
Kampala, 23rd September 2005