New report pins govt on brutality, killings

Brutality. A member of Uganda Young Democrats is forced onto a police pickup truck by plain clothed men and policemen at Parliament Avenue during the age limit protests in Kampala last month PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA

What you need to know:

  • On the spot. The report names police as the leading state agency in violation of human rights and extrajudicial killings of civilians.
  • “Defendants arrested after the Kasese violence and detained in Nalufenya showed clear signs of mistreatment and torture during court hearings… Photos later emerged of the mayor of Kamwenge in western Uganda, bearing horrific injuries, which he said resulted from beatings by police investigating the same murders,” HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Kampala. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a scathing report castigating police and other security agencies for brutality against the population and violently dispersing opposition gatherings with impunity.
The US-based human rights organisation condemned the continued violation of people’s freedom of association, expression, and assembly.

In its annual world report, HRW also accused government of turning a blind eye to illegal detentions, torture, and extra judicial killings and refusing to prosecute the perpetrators.
The 2017 report released yesterday named police as the leading state agency in violation of human rights and extrajudicial killings of civilians.

“Police killed at least two people in Rukungiri and one in Amolatar while using excessive force to disperse what they deemed “illegal rallies.” And yet in October, police charged opposition leader Kizza Besigye and two colleagues with murder, assault, inciting violence, and unlawful assembly for the deaths of protestors in Rukungiri,” the report states.

Blocking demos
HRW added that police “unjustifiably block, restrict, and disperse peaceful assemblies and demonstrations by opposition groups, relying on the vague and overbroad 2013 Public Order Management Act (POMA), which grants police wide discretionary powers over public and private gatherings”. The report cites numerous incidents, including the arrest and detention of 56 members of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party for three days on charges of holding an “unlawful assembly” at a private home on the outskirts of Kampala.

“In contrast,” the report notes, “in August and September 2017, police in Arua, West Nile and Kabale escorted demonstrators advocating in favour of the constitutional amendment.”
This was the period government was drumming up support for its move to amend Article 102b of the Constitution to scrap the presidential age limit that would bar President Museveni from standing for re-election in 2021 due to overage.

The HRW put both police and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions on the spot as aiding and escalating illegal detention and torture.
“Police and prosecutors consistently failed to investigate cases of illegal detention and torture of suspects and did not charge a single security personnel under Uganda’s Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act,” the report says.

Nalufenya
The report revealed that HRW and other organisations have documented numerous incidents of mistreatment and torture, particularly at Nalufenya Police Station where suspects are often held for periods far beyond the 48 hours permitted by law without being taken to court.
The report further castigated the government for consistently using a variety of laws to gag media freedom and free expression.

The report cites the UCC ban on live broadcasts of parliamentary proceedings following the clashes in the House during the debate on the Constitution amendment to remove the presidential age limit, the arrest and detention of four journalists in Lira for covering public protests on the age limit saga and charging editors with offensive communication over similar reasons.
UCC Corporate Affairs Director Fred Otunnu denied selective application of the law to suppress media critical of the President or government.

“Provisions call for responsible broadcasting and as a regulatory body, we implement the law. The issue that UCC enforces the law selectively is not true because that incident in Parliament did not apply to any particular broadcaster but all who were involved,” Mr Otunnu told Daily Monitor last evening.
“In any case, it is a licensing provision that a broadcaster delays a live broadcast for some seconds to control what may be at variance with the law. That equipment by licence requirement has to be installed,” he added.

The HRW also mentioned former NTV journalist Gertrude Tumusiime Uwitware, who was kidnapped for some days, raids on NGOs last year which the reports notes “were widely seen as part of a crackdown on civic activism opposed to the change” of “amending constitutional limits on presidential age.”
The HRW says police failed to make progress on “accountability for over two dozen break-ins at NGO offices, all known for work on sensitive subjects—including human rights and corruption. “In two instances, guards were killed, but no one was arrested.”

In a previous report of 2016, HRW accused security forces of carrying out at least 13 extra-judicial killings of people in the Rwenzori region shortly after the February 18, 2016 general elections. It says in November 2016, police and army raids in Kasese left more than 100 people dead and called for an independent inquiry into the bloodbath.

In response last year, government said the investigation would prejudice the trial in court but insisted Uganda has independent investigative capability.
“The government refused to investigate the conduct of its forces during military and police operations at the palace compound of the region’s cultural institution… none of the ongoing prosecutions involve soldiers or police,” HRW says in the 2017 report.

Minister responds
Frank Tumwebaze, Information minister.
“Their reports are always predictable and they keep regurgitating the same baseless allegations,” Mr Tumwebaze said.
“You have seen many police and army officers get tried for individual actions that violated the law. On the other hand, law enforcement cannot be regarded as human rights violations. Talking of extrajudicial killings is actually being careless and irresponsible on their part. No Ugandan is killed by the state extra-judiciary. If individual security operatives commit crimes, they are severely punished,” he added.