NAIROBI, Kenya
Ugandan authorities should take immediate steps to end the ongoing abductions by suspected state agents and cease the unlawful detention without trial of opposition supporters, Human Rights Watch said in a statement issued Thursday, March 11.
HRW
says in its statement that on March 4, 2021, Internal Affairs minister Jeje
Odongo presented a list to parliament of 177 people in military detention who
had been arrested between November 18, 2020, and February 8, 2021, allegedly
for “participating in riots,” “possession of military stores,” and “meetings
planning post-election violence.”
On
March 8, in a public letter to the media, President Yoweri Museveni said that
50 people were being held by the Special Forces Command, a unit of the Ugandan
army, for “treasonable acts of elements of the opposition.”
On
November 18, security forces had clamped down on protesters demanding the
release of the then-detained opposition presidential candidate Robert
Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine.
“The
recent spate of enforced disappearances has only compounded the intense climate
of fear in Uganda following the recent violent national elections,” said Oryem
Nyeko, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“The
authorities should urgently investigate these disappearances and other abuses
and hold those responsible, including members of security forces, to account.”
In
a speech on Sunday night (March 14) broadcast on radio and television,
President Museveni said, “I would advise those who have been involved in these
crimes to really repent their mistakes. The children who were arrested by
security forces, many of them have been talked to and they have given us a lot
of information and have been helped to go back to their families.”
But
HRW insists authorities should investigate all cases of enforced disappearances
to determine the whereabouts and status of all victims, release all those
arbitrarily detained, and prosecute those responsible.
Anyone
lawfully detained should have immediate access to their family and lawyers, and
anyone not yet charged and placed in pretrial detention, should be released in
accordance with the law, the statement reads. Between February 17 and March 3,
Human Rights Watch spoke with 10 relatives of people abducted, witnesses,
opposition members, and civil society members, in Kampala.
Witnesses
described how armed men picked people off the streets or from their homes and
took them away in unmarked vans without numbered license plates; commonly
referred to in Uganda as “Drones.”
Human
Rights Watch spoke to victims who said that their abductors beat and detained
them in “safe houses” and questioned them about their political affiliation or
their role in the protests, then dropped them off at random locations.
The
circumstances of many others who were abducted and taken to safe houses are
unknown. Shadia Nakaweesi said that on November 20, about 20 men in black
police uniforms broke into her home, beat her 34-year-old husband, Hassan
Mubiru, then drove him away in a black “Drone.”
Nakaweesi
said that when she tried to report him missing at a nearby police station, the
officers refused to accept the complaint. Her husband’s whereabouts remains
unknown. A victim, Alvin Ddamulira, said that six armed men abducted him, his
51-year-old father, John Ddamulira, and three others at their spare parts shop
at Kisekka market in Kampala on November 21.
The
men blindfolded, handcuffed, and beat them, then drove them in a white “Drone”
to an unmarked building, where, he said, a man told them, “You people from
Kisekka market, stop rioting. The president is not happy about what you are
doing.”
At 1 am the following day, the abductors dumped four of the men in Bweyogerere, 12 kilometres from Kisekka Market. John Ddamulira was not released and has not been heard from since.
On
November 24, Rose Nakayiza said, she was told by a friend that her husband,
Rashid Kalunda, 32, had been taken away in a “Drone” by men in black uniforms,
with two others – Fred Jingo and Sunday Mwanje – from Owino market in Kampala.
Nakayiza said that her efforts to locate her husband in several police stations
and the military intelligence office have so far been fruitless.
On
March 5, Kyagulanyi’s party, the National Unity Platform, said that 423 members
and supporters had been abducted and were still missing, and another 41 had
been released by their abductors.
On
February 8, media reported that Ronald Segawa, who had been missing since late
January, was found dumped unconscious at the Mulago hospital morgue in Kampala.
The next day Kyagulanyi shared pictures of Segawa’s scarred body on Twitter
during a visit to him in a hospital, saying that he had been burned,
electrocuted, and had his fingernails plucked out allegedly for campaigning for
Kyagulanyi.
The
Ugandan constitution, in line with international human rights norms, requires
the authorities to produce anyone accused of a crime in court within 48 hours
and to ensure the detainees’ right of access to a lawyer, and their family and
to receive any needed medical attention.
An
enforced disappearance occurs when agents of the state, or organized groups or
private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or
indirect, consent or acquiescence of the government, deprive someone of their
liberty and then refuse to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty; or to
disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned, placing them outside
the protection of the law.
The
January 14 elections were characterized by widespread violence and human rights
violations during which security forces clamped down on opposition members and
journalists, violently arresting scores of people, including Kyagulanyi and
Patrick Amuriat, another presidential candidate, multiple times. The
authorities also shut down the internet for five days, and blocked access to
social media websites for a month.
On
February 5, 2020, Uganda’s parliamentary human rights committee released a
report in which they found that security forces detained and tortured people in
unofficial detention facilities across Uganda, commonly known as “safe houses.”
Arbitrary
detention, enforced disappearances, and inhuman or degrading treatment and
torture are strictly prohibited at all times under international, regional, and
Ugandan law.
The
prohibition not only obligates governments to comply with the law, but entails
a duty to investigate when suspected violations occur and prosecute those
responsible. Enforced disappearances and torture may also constitute and be
prosecuted as a crime against humanity if they form part of a state-sponsored
policy or practice, or are part of a broader attack against civilians by state
authorities.
“The
Ugandan authorities should act immediately to stop the egregious violations
that have taken place since the elections, including by releasing those held
incommunicado, shutting down all secret detention facilities, and holding those
responsible to account,” Nyeko said.
“The government should respect political plurality and end the harassment of opposition members.” - The Observer
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