Amnesty International Report 1997 - Uganda

At least 17 prisoners of conscience were briefly held. Hundreds of people were detained without charge or trial and thousands were detained for several hours. Police, soldiers and a government militia were responsible for widespread torture and ill-treatment, in at least three cases resulting in death. Prison conditions amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and resulted in at least three deaths. Courts continued to impose sentences of caning. Police and soldiers carried out extrajudicial executions. At least 996 prisoners were under sentence of death at the end of the year, including at least 30 sentenced during the year, and three men were executed. Armed opposition groups were responsible for gross human rights abuses, including hundreds of deliberate and arbitrary killings and rape. Continuing armed conflict between the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and armed opposition groups displaced over 200,000 people. In the north, military activity by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) intensified in February after the group crossed into Uganda from bases in Sudan. In the northwest, the West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) attacked Uganda from Zaire and Sudan. President Yoweri Museveni was re-elected in May and parliamentary elections were held in June. At least 17 political activists briefly held at the time of the elections and during a traders' strike in October were prisoners of conscience. In May, Nsubuga Nsambu, a member of the Conservative Party, was held for two days and charged with sedition after insulting President Yoweri Museveni. Charges were dropped in September. Hundreds of prisoners were detained without charge or trial and thousands of others were detained for several hours. In August and September, thousands of people were held for several hours and 240 detained for longer periods in the northern town of Gulu following army operations to "screen" suspected LRA rebels. In late August, more than 190 men were freed, but in September, 52 reportedly remained in detention without charge or trial in Gulu. Scores of men were detained for alleged involvement with the WNBF. Dozens of other detainees had been arrested in previous years, among them 15 civilians and soldiers held for over two years in Lubiri barracks. At least 39 suspected members of the WNBF were charged with treason after several months in illegal detention. In the past, treason charges – which preclude the granting of bail for 360 days – have been used to hold suspected government opponents for long periods without trial. At least 29 other men were charged with treason during the year. Over 150 men charged with treason in previous years remained in custody awaiting trial. Police, soldiers and Local Defence Unit personnel were responsible for torture and ill-treatment. George Kaweesa, detained in Lubiri barracks, was reported to have died in January after being beaten by UPDF soldiers. In August, police in Tororo beat 71 prisoners, two of whom later died in custody. Overcrowding and poor conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment were reported in prisons throughout the country. In January, Local Administration prisons were taken over by the central prison authorities after repeated reports of torture, malnutrition and serious overcrowding. Three men died in a Local Administration Prison at Kangulumira in March as a result of the poor conditions in which they were held. Courts continued to impose sentences of caning – a cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment; at least three men were caned following convictions for attempted sexual acts with children. Police and soldiers were responsible for extrajudicial executions in northern Uganda. In August, UPDF officers in Gulu town threw four alleged LRA members to a waiting crowd, who killed them. Journalists and human rights activists based in northern Uganda received death threats both from UPDF soldiers and the armed opposition LRA. At least 30 men were sentenced to death. In March, three men sentenced to death in previous years for murder were hanged. In August, prison officials reported that 996 prisoners were awaiting execution. Armed opposition groups were responsible for gross human rights abuses. The LRA carried out hundreds of deliberate and arbitrary killings of civilians, including refugees. Over 110 Sudanese refugees were shot or hacked to death in July in an attack on Achol Pii camp and in August more than 60 civilians accused by the LRA of being informers were killed in Kilak. Hundreds of people, in particular children, were abducted. Prisoners caught attempting to escape were tortured or killed. Captives were used as forced labour; boys were forcibly conscripted into the LRA and girls were raped. The WNBF was responsible for deliberate and arbitrary killings in the northwest. Six Sudanese refugees were reported to have been beheaded in April in an attack on Koboko camp. Amnesty International called on the President to commute all death sentences. In October, the organization called for a judicial inquiry into extrajudicial executions in Gulu and for journalists and human rights activists to be allowed to work without intimidation. In November, in a submission to a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the northern war, Amnesty International called for an end to detention without charge or trial. In July, Amnesty International condemned deliberate and arbitrary killings by the LRA and WNBF, and in October called on the LRA to free all captives.