The Ugandan army is as guilty as the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in abusing civilians devastated by nearly two decades of conflict in northern Uganda, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, calling for a probe into the conduct of government forces.
The New-York based HRW accused the Ugandan Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) of indiscipline that has led to a raft of abuses while President Yoweri Museveni’s government has stood by and failed to reign in on its errant soldiers.
”Soldiers in Uganda’s national army have raped, beaten, arbitrarily detained and killed civilians in camps,” said the report, entitled ”Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda”.
”The Ugandan government has failed to pursue prosecution of military officers before national courts that could put an end to such violations,” HRW researcher, Jemera Rone, told reporters.
”Instead of protecting its own citizens, it [the army] has permitted widespread abuses against the civilian population which has only deepened the animosity between the people of northern Uganda and the central government in Kampala,” she said.
”The discipline of the Ugandan soldiers is woefully lacking.”
Ironically, Kampala has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to probe the insurgents for the violations, yet its troops are part of the problem, the report said.
”Justice in northern Uganda requires that the International Criminal Court thoroughly examine the government forces’ crimes against civilian population as well as those committed against civilians,” Rone said.
In addition, she said soldiers often administered beatings to civilians on flimsy grounds, including arriving in the camps only a few minutes after the curfew.
The report also blamed the army for failing to carrying out patrols and of sometimes fleeing the LRA insurgents when they carry out massive attacks in the region.
The LRA took over leadership of a rebellion in northern Uganda in 1988 and vowed to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni and replace it with one based on the Ten Commandments.
The group is, however, notorious for atrocities committed against civilians and abducting villagers as bearers, child soldiers and sex slaves.
Kidnappings and slaughter of civilians has forced 1,6-million villagers into camps in northern Uganda, most of which are prone to attacks.
”Children have been the primary victims of rebel abuses, although adults have not been spared,” Rone added.
She said civilians do not have any recourse as the same soldiers they complain to are the ones who abuse them.
”No effective accountability structures exist in the camps,” said Rone, adding that reports of abuses rarely result in probes or prosecutions of military personnel.
HRW said the 11th batallion of UPDF, deployed in Cwero and Awach camps in Gulu district, ”have committed numerous deliberate killings and constant beating of civilians” when it was deployed there early this year.
”Instead of holding the 11th batallion’s commanders accountable for the atrocities committed on their watch, the Ugandan army transferred the unit to another area of the country where its soldiers and officers can continue to commit abuse of different innocent people,” Rone said.
But the east African state has enjoyed a positive image with the international community as a success story for its pursuit for democratic reforms.
Rone said this image stands in the way of efforts to pressure Kampala to clamp down on the LRA insurgents.
The government ”seems to have convinced their donor partners that it should not be held accountable for this war going on for so long in northern Uganda,” the researcher said.
However, Rone urged the Ugandan government and the ICC to hold the army accountable.
”It is a shame and really atrocious that the international community and even the people of Uganda haven’t done and said more to try to bring all these abuses to an end,” she added. – Sapa-AFP