By Timothy Nsubuga

28^th May 2012:

Preganant woman shot in stomach by police

The US government has delivered a damning verdict on Uganda’s human rights record, accusing Uganda of all sorts of rights violations – from torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, to arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions and even extra-judicial killings.

The US assessment of Uganda’s human rights record is contained in the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011 issued by the US State Department last week.  According to the report, the three worst human rights violations in Uganda were “lack of respect for the integrity of the person”, which includes unlawful killings, torture, and other abuse of suspects and detainees.

Second on the list of the worst human rights violations included what the US called “unwarranted restrictions on civil liberties”, especially restrictions on freedom of assembly, freedom of the media, and freedom of association.

Third in line is violence and discrimination against marginalized groups, including against women.  Female genital mutilation and violence against children, sometimes in the form of ritual killing!  Discrimination against persons with disabilities, and against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community are also mentioned.

Other human rights violations mentioned in the report included mob violence, harsh prison conditions, official corruption, arbitrary and politically motivated arrest and detention, incommunicado and lengthy pre-trial detention, restrictions on the right to a fair trial, electoral irregularities, trafficking in persons, and forced labour – including child labour.

The Evidence

To back up the allegations in its report, the US says there were several reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings, as state security forces [SSF] killed opposition party demonstrators and other citizens.

In particular, the US said government SSF used “excessive force and live ammunition to disperse anti-government demonstrations in April and May, [which] resulted in at least 10 deaths, including a two-year-old girl in Masaka”, who we know to be Juliana Nalwanga.

It also said while the Ugandan authorities arrested the reserve police officer Paul Mugenyi for the April 20 killing of Julian Nalwanga, the government regrettably “held no one accountable for the nine other killings.”

The report also cites another case where the authorities arrested police officers Aggrey Arineitwe and James Babaranda for the April 11 killing of a 16-year-old-girl in Kabale, who was shot and killed by police using live ammunition to disrupt a strike at a secondary school.

However, soon after his arrest, Arineitwe was released for “lack of evidence” and the criminal charges against Mugenyi and Babaranda were, by the end of the year, still pending.

The US also said there was “excessive” use of force and “indiscriminate use of live ammunition by SSF, including the Uganda People’s Defence Forces [UPDF]” which resulted in needless deaths during cattle recovery and disarmament operations in Karamoja.  For example, on September 5, the UPDF also killed six Karamojong cattle rustlers in two operations to recover stolen cattle in Kaabong District.

However, in most of the cases where civilians were, the government has always blamed the opposition for provoking security officers.  Click here to read the full report on human rights violations in Uganda.

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