Suspects arrested by Ugandan military for cattle rustling are routinely held in prisons or army barracks. In Kotido district in northern Uganda four former detainees described the harrowing experience they had been subjected to, which included tortured in military custody.
When the arrests happen, the first to be released were students, those with formal jobs and those who spoke English well. The last were the “boda-boda” motorbike taxi drivers and the peddlers of local brew. Bruises, scratches and traditional tattoos were all treated as cause for suspicion.
“[The soldiers] are now categorising people based on how they appear,” said one of the released men. “Those who are dirty, one side. Those who don’t dress very well, one side. Those who are somehow smart, one side.”
In some places, the army’s heavy-handed approach, combined with the wanton violence of the raiders, is obstructing humanitarian efforts.
“We have a community dialogue, a meeting, [and] the security personnel come and they just take the participants,” said an aid worker in Kotido district, speaking anonymously to avoid damaging relations with the government. “As they are mobilised, sitting waiting for you, the army comes and takes them.”
One farmer said soldiers held him down on a bed of smouldering thorns, ripped off his traditional necklace, and strangled him.
“There were about 15 of them,” he recalled. “It was only one of them who tried to save me. He said: ‘Why do you want to kill this man for nothing?’ If it wasn’t for that man, I think I would be dead.”
“When the government comes, it should target the right person to arrest, instead of what is happening now where they just gather everyone.”
Others said soldiers beat them with sticks and batons, plucked at their flesh with pliers or stamped on wood that was bound between their fingers. One showed marks around his wrists where he was suspended by rope from a tree as soldiers clubbed him.
“When the government comes, it should target the right person to arrest, instead of what is happening now where they just gather everyone,” he said. “They take those people and they torture them for nothing.”
The men described being held in unbearable heat in metal huts, sometimes for weeks on end. At times, there were so many prisoners they could not lie straight. Two described being deprived of food for days. None were charged with any offence.
It is difficult to verify the details of these reports, but they are consistent with cases of torture jointly documented by the UN Human Rights Office and the state-run Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC).
In a presentation delivered before army officers on September 22, the UN and UHRC said they had received 35 complaints of alleged torture in the preceding three months, including beatings, water deprivation, and the tying of limbs or testicles. They also recorded five cases of “arbitrary and unlawful killings”, including one man tortured to death in a barracks, an 81-year-old shot in his home, and a boy shot after going to milk a cow.
“Our office is seriously concerned about continuous allegations of human rights in law enforcement,” Grace Pelly, the deputy representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Uganda, told the September 22 meeting. “Human rights violations perpetuate distrust and fear among affected populations, endangering both peace and development in the whole of Karamoja.”
In March, the army reported that it had killed 309 “warriors” during its operations. No figures have been released since. Raiders engage soldiers in gun battles, so some incidents may be self-defence. However, these killings have not been independently investigated.
Meanwhile, thousands of people have been rounded up. At the meeting on September 22, army spokesman Major Isaac Oware said they had arrested 11,603 suspects since the disarmament operations began in July 2021. Of those, 9,087 had been released.
A further 672 had been tried and sentenced by army court martial – a practice deemed unconstitutional by Uganda’s highest courts – with another 363 waiting to appear. Notably, of 1,481 suspects handled by civilian courts, none had yet been convicted.
“That is the law, yes. But the reality on the ground is you need more time with the suspect as you are doing investigations.”
Oware told that cordon-and-search is a “normal procedure”, one which has made Karamoja “more secure and safe”. He rejected the suggestion that the army has been detaining people illegally.
“They are prime criminal elements or they are prime suspects, not people,” he said.
The army’s top spokesman, Brigadier-General Felix Kulayigye, said reports of torture had been investigated and “some of the officers have been arraigned in the court martial for misconduct”.
Kulayigye confirmed that suspects are detained in barracks. When The New Humanitarian pointed out that barracks are not legal detention facilities, he laughed.
“I’m sorry to laugh at you. Reason: What are we dealing with? Are we dealing with formal criminality? Number two, do we have sufficient detention facilities in Karamoja to deal with this scale?”
Asked about the fact that suspects cannot be held without charge for more than 48 hours under Ugandan law, Kulayigye replied: “That is the law, yes. But the reality on the ground is you need more time with the suspect as you are doing investigations.”
He batted away questions about whether the practices were unconstitutional. “I am not the attorney general,” Kulayigye said. “My job is to make sure there is peace.”
- The New Humanitarian report
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