Human rights group urges conditional military aid

Military aid to Uganda should be tied to human rights performance in order to stem numerous human rights violations by both the military and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rights watchdog said on Tuesday. "It will be good for governments that give Uganda military aid of any kind, especially the United States, to tie such aid to human rights performance," Jemera Rone of the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), told reporters in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. She made the comments during the launch of a report entitled "Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda", which catalogues acts of abuse by both the military and the rebels. Rone called on both the international community and the Ugandan government to put much greater effort into finding a solution to the "terrible war" in northern Uganda that has lasted 19 years. Indiscipline and impunity in the army The rights group accused the Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces - the national army - of indiscipline, leading to a series of abuses, and said the government was impassive and had failed to effectively punish offending soldiers. "Uganda has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute abuses by the Lord's Resistance Army," Rone said. "But the Ugandan army itself has carried out serious crimes that demand prosecution." "Soldiers in Uganda's national army have raped, beaten, arbitrarily detained and killed civilians in camps. Some beatings are inflicted for minor infractions such as being outside the camp a few minutes past curfew," HRW said in the report. The 76-page report cited a particular army unit, the 11th Battalion, deployed in Cwero and Awach camps in Gulu district, some 380 km north of the capital, which the report says committed "deliberate killings and constant beating of civilians" when it was deployed there early this year. "Instead of holding the battalion's commanders accountable for the atrocities committed, the military authorities transferred the unit to another area, which would not be the solution," Rone told reporters. The Ugandan government, however, reacted strongly to the accusations against it, and said the report was "politically motivated" and "a deliberate smear campaign against the country at a politically charged period". "There is no impunity in the military and past evidence could attest to this. We have had zero tolerance to indiscipline in the army and human rights abuses by individual soldiers have been severely punished," Lt Col Shaban Bantariza, army spokesman, told IRIN by phone. He gave the example of two soldiers who killed a Roman Catholic Church priest in the northeastern region of Karamoja in 2002. "They were quickly court martialed, found guilty and subjected to a firing squad. Two others were also sentenced to a firing squad in 2003 in Kitgum [district, 450 km north of Kampala] after they were convicted of killing a woman, while two officers were given long years in prison for failing to defend an IDP camp in Pader [district, 440 km north of Kampala] in 2004 allowing rebels to attack the camp," Bantariza said. The report also blamed the army for failing to carrying out patrols and alleged that on some occasions, the army had fled the LRA insurgents when they carried out massive attacks in the region. HRW called on the LRA to immediately cease all attacks "against civilians and other non-combatants, including wilful killing, torture and abduction". The report said while the Ugandan government claims that only 400 LRA fighters remained, the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army commanders interviewed said about 1,000 rebels are in Sudan. "It is unexplainable how only 400 fighters could have a presence in that huge region," Rone said. The role of the international community The group called on The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) to effectively communicate its mandate to investigate acts of abuse involving both parties in the conflict. "The failure of the court to communicate has undermined its credibility and impartiality in the eyes of the people in the north. The ICC should prepare and implement a communications and outreach strategy to create awareness of their mission and mandate among communities," Rone said. "We are calling for accountability for those responsible for this situation and there is need for rigorous disciplining of the soldiers and those that have committed crimes should be punished. They should be brought to book and the people should be told," she added. The rights group called upon the UN office for human rights to make its presence in the region felt in order to sufficiently and effectively monitor human rights abuses committed by all parties. Rone called on the international community to support more humanitarian work in the region, including more funding for the activities of the United Nations Office for the Ordination of Humanitarian Activities and those of the UN Children's Fund. The LRA has fought the government forces since 1988 and has vowed to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni, ostensibly to replace it with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments. The group is, however, best known for atrocities committed against civilians. It is notorious for abducting villagers - particularly children - for use as porters, child soldier conscripts and sex slaves. The brutal military campaign has forced at least 1.6 million people out of their homes and into camps for internally displaced in northern and eastern Uganda, most of which lack the most basic facilities.