Breaking the circle: protecting human rights in the northern war zone

UGANDA - Breaking the circle: protecting human rights in the northern war zone

1.     Introduction

Comments:
In the war in northern Uganda, now in its thirteenth year, the control of civilians is a key strategic objective for both the government's Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces (UPDF) and the armed opposition Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). This puts villagers at the heart of the war and makes them vulnerable to human rights abuse by both sides. The districts of Gulu and Kitgum have been ravaged. Four hundred thousand people, 50% of the population of Gulu and Kitgum, have been forced from their farms and are now living in camps. The worst affected district is Gulu where 80% of the population is displaced. In September 1997 Amnesty International published a report, 'Breaking God's commands': the destruction of childhood by the Lord's Resistance Army, describing the abduction of children to be soldiers and slaves by the LRA. Attacks on civilians, killings, rape and child abduction remain standard methods of operation by the LRA. The Sudan Government continues to supply the LRA with arms and military bases. The scale of LRA violence has largely hidden a pattern of human rights violations by government forces. This report is exposes this pattern and looks at action by the authorities to bring to justice human rights violators. Over the past three years Amnesty International has documented scores of extrajudicial executions, dozens of rapes and hundreds of beatings by government forces. In some areas, indiscriminate shelling has been used to force villagers from the countryside. There is general problem of impunity for soldiers who have committed human rights violations. This ranges from impunity for senior officers implicated in a lynching in Gulu town to home guards involved in rape in the countryside. When violations have been committed in remote or rural areas few soldiers have been arrested. When human rights have been violated in camps for displaced persons some soldiers have been arrested and charged. But almost none have been brought to trial. The report analyses reasons for continuing impunity. In immediate terms these include a series of institutional failures in the administration of justice. Important factors include a lack of capacity in the police force to carry out criminal investigation. The police has developed a culture of beating as a normal method of inquiry. Neither Gulu not Kitgum has a Resident State Attorney, who is key to the prosecution of serious criminal cases. The fact that institutional problems have been allowed to continue results from failure by the authorities at the highest level, including President Yoweri Museveni, to give questions of justice in northern Uganda sufficient priority. For people in the north the massive level of internal displacement is a key concern. The current degree of displacement began in 1996. It is the result of brutal attacks on villagers by the LRA and, in Gulu District, the implementation of a policy of putting people in camps by the government. International humanitarian law allows displacement in certain circumstances. The scale of LRA violence against villagers, especially in 1996, means that Amnesty International does not believe that the creation of camps in northern Uganda and the displacement of people to them is intrinsically a violation of international human rights or humanitarian law by the authorities. However, the organization is concerned at the way that human rights violations by government forces, for example extrajudicial executions, indiscriminate shelling, rape and beatings have been factors in forcing people from their homes. Further, the authorities have obligations under international humanitarian law to provide protection, in terms of physical conditions and safety from human rights abuse. They have failed to guarantee food security and provide adequate protection from violence in camps (or for communities in areas where camps have not been created). Lack of food has meant that in some areas villagers have returned home to cultivate or forage for food which has in turn exposed them to human rights violations. The authorities have failed to demonstrate, in Gulu District at least, steps to minimize displacement. They have not taken effective steps to bring to an end the situation that has caused displacement in the first place. This all raises serious questions about whether continuing action to compel people to leave the countryside remains consistent with international law. Meanwhile, the LRA has attacked camps to abduct children and loot food. It has also extended its operations involving abduction and killings to neighbouring areas, such as Lira and Apac Districts, where people are not in camps and have been able to cultivate (and have produced harvests that can be looted). One of the effects of the creation of camps in Gulu has been the extension of violence onto other communities. The report argues that protecting human rights is part of the process of building the conditions for peace. It identifies action to be taken to secure improved human rights protection. The report calls on President Yoweri Museveni and the Ugandan government to provide decisive leadership to put an end to human rights violations in northern Uganda. It calls for an end to the use of compulsion to displace people and for improved security in camps. It calls for effective steps to end impunity for human rights abusers. This includes defining the effective administration of justice in the war zone a national priority and setting up a public inquiry to confront the legacy of past human rights abuses. The report also calls on the LRA to end child abduction and other human rights abuses and on the Sudan Government to stop providing military or other forms of assistance to the LRA as long as the armed group continues to abuse human rights. Amnesty International is calling on member states of the United Nations and other members of the international community to use their influence in Uganda and Sudan to support action for human rights. The Ugandan government should receive a clear message of concern about human rights violations by the UPDF. Amnesty International is calling for support for Ugandan initiatives to improve the human rights situation, including, for example, action to end impunity for human rights violators. The report also calls for governments to investigate persons who claim to be linked to the LRA, especially those who claim to be part of its leadership, for their own direct involvement in human rights abuses and to assess whether there may be grounds for bringing them to justice outside Uganda.

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