Human Rights
Omar Kalinge-Nnyago
Illegal detention, killings and torture of suspects in Uganda
Last Wednesday April 8, 2009, Human Rights Watch, the international human rights watchdog released a damning report on the torture of suspects by Uganda’s security agencies. The report entitled : “Public Secret: Illegal Detention and Torture by the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force in Uganda”. The task force, JATT in short, is a joint unit, formed in 1999, that draws its personnel from the armed forces (the Uganda People’s Defense Force, UPDF), the police, and the internal and external intelligence organizations.
The intelligence branch of the armed forces, the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, CMI, has operational command. JATT has no codified mandate, though the head of CMI told Human Rights Watch that JATT was established to deal with the threat posed by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group based in the DRC. But individuals allegedly linked to other groups, such as Al-Qaeda, have also suffered at the hands of JATT. Former detainees told Human Rights Watch of non-Ugandans held in Kololo for long periods of time, although it is unclear why most of those suspects were detained. Almost all those illegally detained were Muslims. All were suspects. Some were killed. Few were charged in a court of law. A few are languishing in jail, without trial. The lucky were released without charge, while others were forced to apply for amnesty, a confession that the suspect is guilty of terrorism charges whereas not, to escape torture.
Although the report recommends to the Unites States and the United Kingdom, two of Uganda’s major sponsors of Uganda’s counter terrorism operations, to withhold counter terrorism funding, it is not likely to be taken seriously by the two proponents of the global War on Terror, which, others say, is euphemism for Global War on Islam. It is likely that the Ugandan government is simply doing the bidding of the two powers. The ugly incidents of human rights abuses in Abu-Ghuraib prison in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and now the Baghran airforce base detention centre in Afghanistan are not different from JATT atrocities in Uganda. The role of the British intelligence in unfair detention of so called terror suspects in third countries has been widely reported.
Away from the consuming discussion about the victims of JATT torture, I was drawn, in retrospect, to the perpetrators – the men and women who exacted the crime. How could someone become so cruel, so insensitive.
Most of the human rights abuses by governments are carried out as acts of obedience to some sort of authority. Obedience is a basic element in the structure of social life. Many studies of Nazi behaviour concluded that monstrous acts, despite their horrors, were often a matter of faithful bureaucrats slavishly following orders. Obedience is the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purpose. Obedience is such a deeply ingrained behavioural tendency, so deep it often overrides training in ethics, sympathy and moral conduct.
Governments torture people. To do so they train the torturers. Recruits are carefully screened for physical, intellectual and sometimes political attributes. They are taken through rites to isolate the recruits from society and introduce them to a new social order, with different rules and values.
They are then helped to reduce the strain of obedience often by blaming and dehumanizing the victims, so it is less disturbing to hurt them. They are socially modelled by watching other group members commit violent acts and then receive rewards.
Recruits are also systematically de-sensitised to repugnant acts by gradual exposure to them, so they start appearing routine and normal despite conflicts with previous moral standards. Most state security and militia training worldwide is designed to make recruits comfortable with violence. The ‘enemy’ is given derogatory names and portrayed as less than human. This makes it easier to have them killed. A government, designates some derogatory label like “Islamic Militant”, “Islamist”, “Muslim Terrorist”, “Islamic Fundamentalist”, “Muslim radical”, on a section of world citizens. This is an indicator that their security agencies are being shown the target to torture and exterminate the suspected ‘bad guys’ if need be, without guilt. In the name of obedience, even your fellow high school buddy can turn against you without remorse. And she is not mad. Just obeying orders. Scary thought.
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omar d. kalinge-nnyago
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Anthony Rwaga said,
June 15, 2009 at 12:49 pm
One man rule in Uganda
Uganda has reached a stage where one man rule should no longer be entertained. We as citizens of Uganda should push on with the campaign to dislodge NRM from power. The campaign is beginning to bear fruits and the NRM is shaken, otherwise why have a number of their leaders threatened us that they will never hand over power even if they are defeated in general election. This means that they have realised the possibly of being defeated and they are looking for other ways of sticking to power. Why are NRM greedy with Uganda as if it is their personal property? Uganda belongs to all of us and we must have a say in who rules it.
They have been hoodwinking Ugandans that change of leadership should be done in a democratic way and yet at the same time they are abusing that democracy. Why did they change the presidential term limit to benefit one man if they respected democracy? Fellow Ugandans, we have a fight on our hands and we can never relent until Uganda is liberated in one way or another. The fight is not for the faint hearted. We should take heart and continue exposing the ills of NRM government to the electorate. After more than twenty years in power NRM have become complacent and they think that they have a monopoly of wisdom to govern Uganda . We cannot continue to keep quiet while our people are suffering and a few people within NRM are feeding on peoples sweat.
Our immediate fight is to make parliament remove the presidential term limit and then we can go to the next phase of defeating NRM in the 2011 elections. It can be done. Why not? All of us will be on the ground in that year to mobilise people to vote NRM out. Enough is enough. It has already been pointed out by a number of Ugandan politicians including Mao of DP that NRM may try to steal that election through rigging. But I would like to assure you that in case that happens we will have to call for mass action.
After more than twenty years of mismanagement of Uganda it is time for NRM to get out because they have run out of ideas and it is morally right for Ugandans to have a change of leadership. It is wrong for one man to keep on looking down upon other Ugandans and tell them that they cannot offer alternative leadership to the country.
I would like to add my voice to those Ugandans who have already called upon the people of Uganda to stand up for their rights and make a change happen. It can be done, it has been done elsewhere. All that we need is courage and determination. The NRM guns can not kill all of us in case they try. We will not allow NRM and their surrogates to cow us down or bribe us. We still have one and half years left to elections, we will continue to campaign.
Anthony Rwaga
Anthony Rwaga said,
June 15, 2009 at 1:00 pm
The inside story o f drug trafficking in Uganda
TUESDAY, 02 JUNE 2009 20:21
POSTED BY ANTHONY RWAGA
How drug traffickers enter and leave Uganda
Entebbe International Airport is being used as a transit route for heroin and mandrax from the Far East en route to South Africa. A review of drug seizures in 1998 and 1999 indicates an increase in the trafficking of heroin to East African countries from Pakistan, Thailand and India. Due to the large amount of the substance seized, one is inclined to conclude that Uganda is in this context used as a major country of transit,” says the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime. The most commonly cited reasons for Uganda being a major conduit for drug trafficking in the region are lack of effective structures and laws to combat the crime. However, it is now emerging that probably, these are not the biggest problems escalating the drug trafficking in the country.
Security sources have intimated to The Independent that some unscrupulous officers from both the military and police in Uganda protect the drug traffickers especially when they are entering the country.
How is it done?
Informed sources told The Independent that principal drug owners in the Far East and Asia send their agents with the substance. Before departure from the country of origin, the owners inform their contacts in the Ugandan security establishment, especially in the police’s Anti-Narcotics Squad and the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT), which comprises both police and army personnel. The drug traffickers send advance details of their agent coming with the drugs- the name of the airline, flight number, time of arrival among others. The contacts are also briefed about what will happen upon arrival at Entebbe Airport. The said contacts within the security then prepare a case file ahead of the drug carrier’s arrival at the airport. Upon disembarking from the plane at Entebbe Airport, the security immediately whisks him away claiming they have advance intelligence information the person is carrying prohibited products, narcotics or explosives depending on the arresting agency. If it’s Anti-Narcotics Squad, the claim will be that the culprit is carrying drugs. If it’s JATT, they will say he is carrying terror explosives. This strategy works in two ways. First, the drug trafficker will be conveniently whisked away to safety without other security agencies intervening. But two, if the story gets to the media that a suspected drug trafficker or terrorist (as the case may be) has been arrested, it would locally and internationally portray the Ugandan security as vigilant about crime detection.
Sources say the drug traffickers are then escorted to their godfathers within the security purportedly for interrogation. From there, they are taken to their local bases in and around Kampala where the drugs are repackaged as textbooks and reshipped abroad. From Uganda, the drugs are dispatched under fake sender’s postal and telephone addresses. The postal and telephone addresses of the recipients in the country of destination are valid for only the period of the transaction. Once the transaction is complete, the addresses change. The addresses keep changing with every consignment. That would be the end of the story about the arrested drug traffickers and their drugs. Nothing will be heard about them again and the practice continues.
Last year, DHL managers and a military intelligence operative tried to block shipment of a drug consignment to UK. But in the process, they were arrested and prosecuted in court for conspiring to defeat and defying lawful orders.
Genesis of DHL saga
On or around 20th March 2008, a courier with DHL called Julius Kanyamishwa brought a consignment for dispatch to London. It bore “Mulinde Juma of P.O. Box 16390 Kampala with telephone number 0712294221” as the sender’s address. The recipient’s address was: “Daniel Lendi 140 Queens Road Watford-Hertfordshire WD 17 2NY, UK. Telephone: 000447786292660.”
Persistent calls by The Independent to the Ugandan local telephone address shown on the parcel revealed that the number was constantly off air. Calls to the London address too showed that the telephone contact does not exist.
Kanyamishwa was off duty that day, being on sick leave. Normally, the client informs DHL about his/her intention to send a package. Then DHL sends its couriers to collect it. In this case, no client had called DHL about the consignment. Kanyamishwa’s sudden appearance on duty with the consignment raised suspicion. He wanted the consignment cleared quickly but the DHL management declined. He sneaked out. Upon checking, the goods were discovered to be drugs. DHL rang detective Yohan Mugarura at Jinja Road Police Station and informed him about the matter. He advised them to wait for Kanyamishwa to return for duty the following day so that he could be arrested to help trace the drug owners. Kanyamishwa never returned.
According to sources, during that period a senior UPDF officer, who is now a colonel (names withheld) from western Uganda, was contacting DHL to inquire about the status of the consignment. The sources The Independent talked to variously named the colonel in drug trafficking. He is said to be very rich and highly feared in the security establishment because of his influence. Although several sources close to the case implicated the colonel in the scandal, police said they had no information that he was involved.
While the DHL bosses were still waiting for Kanyamishwa’s return to duty, there arrived two police officers (names withheld) from Anti-Narcotics/CID headquarters and an army lieutenant from Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) demanding to search the DHL premises. They had a court warrant from Buganda Road Court indicating they were looking for explosives although at DHL offices, they said they were looking for drugs.
The two officers knew details about the contested goods, something that made the DHL chiefs suspect foul play. They declined to surrender the drugs to the police. They instead called Lt. Bob Drani from CMI and handed over the parcel to him. Drani came and left incognito.
Drani had previously worked with DHL before he joined security. He had also helped DHL foil several drug deals in the past. According to inside sources, DHL trusted Drani would do the right job. But upon arriving at CMI with the drug parcel, his boss Leo Kyanda ordered him to take them to CID headquarters. Surprisingly upon arrival at CID, Drani was arrested by the police officers whom DHL had refused to hand the consignment to. They put him under arrest and later arrested Johan van Droogenbroeck, the DHL Uganda General Manager, and the Operations Manager Francis Nkurunungi. The three were later tried in Buganda Road Court. Nkurunungi was acquitted while his co-accused were convicted for conspiracy to defeat justice and obstructing court officers. They paid the fine and were freed. The DHL management later apprehended Kanyamishwa and handed him over to the CID/anti-narcotics police. He was reportedly released on the same day and has never been charged.
Puzzling questions
Why did the police release Kanyamishwa without asking him to tell them the drug owners who sent him to DHL? Why did the police abandon the bigger case of drug trafficking and instead concentrated on a lesser crime of defying lawful orders? What happened to the investigations about the drug owners?
When contacted, Director of CID Edward Ochom referred The Independent to Detective Superintendent Fred Enanga. Enanga said police found that Kanyamishwa had no case to answer and was being sacrificed by DHL. He also said the parcel which was taken from DHL contained heroin but what was handed over to police had cannabis. He said DHL appears to have tampered with the contents of the parcel and for that reason; the police were preparing new charges of possession of drugs (heroin) against DHL because the latter never handed them over.
However, there is a counter-accusation that it’s the police who tampered with the contents of the consignment and that during the trial, they brought less drugs to court than what Lt. Drani handed over to them.
Enanga insisted DHL were at fault and said the Inspector General of Police Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura had to liaise with the then CMI boss Col. Leo Kyanda to have the drugs handed over to police.
He dismissed the DHL claim that they had reported the case to Jinja Road Police Station before the CID officers came for the search. He declined to give further details and referred The Independent to the new CID spokesman Joseph Obwona.
However when The Independent contacted Detective Mugarura of Jinja Road Police, he confirmed that DHL had informed him about the drug parcel.
“They did not report to the station. They had called me on phone and informed me about the matter. I even went to court and testified. They suspected one of their workers [Kanyamishwa] was involved. They were waiting for him to come back the next day but in the process, they informed me that some detectives from CID had come to search their premises for the drugs.”
The DHL lawyer who represented them in court, Oscar Kihika, said he suspects a police cover up. “Who committed the bigger crime, DHL or the drug traffickers? What have police done to them? Nothing. My clients were instead charged with a minor offence of obstructing justice while the bigger offenders [the drug traffickers] were left free and at large. This means the police were not interested in the bigger case of the drug traffickers. My clients defied lawful orders but they were facilitating prosecution of the offence. The drug tablets handed over to the police at Kibuli [CID headquarters] were six but in court they produced four,” Kihika said.
The DHL contention is that their arrest and prosecution in court was a ploy by the police to divert attention and bury the investigations into the main case of drug trafficking, a charge refuted by the police.
“Those are mere excuses for their cover-up. Why did they obstruct police who had a court order?” Obwona said.
He denied that police had abandoned investigations into the drug owners. He said police were still pursuing the drug owners and some suspects would be charged soon. He declined to name them saying it would jeopardise the investigations. Lt. Drani and the DHL officials declined to comment.
Home Column Guest Column Kagame among 100 most influential people in world
Kagame among 100 most influential people in world
TUESDAY, 02 JUNE 2009 22:05
BY DR RICK WARREN
POSTED BY ANTHONY RWAGA
President Paul Kagame, 51, of Rwanda, is the face of emerging African leadership. His reconciliation strategy, management model, empowerment of women in leadership, and insistence on self-reliance, are transforming a failed state into one with a bright future. Rwanda’s rapid improvements have impressed the rest of the continent and Kagame’s influence is exponentially greater than the size that his small country might warrant.
Paul Kagame is one of few leaders who has successfully modeled the transition from soldier to statesman. During the atrocities of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, the world watched in horror, but did nothing. Kagame, with no outside help, was solely responsible for ending the slaughter that murdered over a million citizens in 100 days.
When his best friend was killed, Kagame was forced to assume the leadership of the Rwandan exiles that ended the killing spree. He was hailed as liberator by his countrymen, but wisely refused the presidency at that point. “What we needed most was unity”, he said, “and I had not been elected.”
After the genocide, the nation was in shambles. Kagame and others began the slow process of rebuilding. But the process moved into hyper drive when he was elected president in 2000. He launched a series of reforms and reconciliation strategies that have caught the attention of investors worldwide. He has since taken the small but densely populated African country from division and devastation to unity and stability, fostering a social and economic recovery unimaginable 15 years ago. Even his critics respect his accomplishments.
Kagame’s leadership includes a number of uncommon characteristics: One is his willingness to listen and learn from those who oppose him, and even find ways to partner with them. When Stephen Kinzer was writing a biography of Kagame, the president gave him a list of his critics and suggested that Kinzer could discover what the president was really like by interviewing them. Only a humble, yet confident, leader would do that.
Another uncommon characteristic is Kagame’s zero tolerance for corruption. Rwanda is one of the few countries where I’ve never been asked for a bribe. Anytime a government worker is caught in corruption, he is publicly exposed and dealt with. It is a model for the entire country – and the rest of the world too.
-Time magazine
Home Column Interview Uganda a collapsing state – Maj. Kazoora
Uganda a collapsing state – Maj. Kazoora
TUESDAY, 02 JUNE 2009 20:57
POSTED BY ANTHONY RWAGA
Many incidences of security concerns in Uganda have surfaced in the last few years. The central and western part of the country that had been perceived to be at peace is today under security threats; iron bar hit-men, ritual murderers, schools and markets burning, errant security officers shooting at people among others. The Independent’s Onghwens Kisangala talked to an NRA bush veteran, retired Maj. John Kazoora about these change of events. Below are excerpts.
There have been different trends of insecurity in our country in the last one year, where several facilities have been burnt, the iron bar and ritual killings, errant security officers shooting people and others. Why is Uganda degenerating to this level?
When you are studying political science or management; you will be told that there is a state. In our case here, the president heads the state. Now, the state is the guarantor of security uncontested. That is why we pay taxes to the state. That is why there are security agents recognised by the constitution; the police, ESO, ISO and the others. What are they there for? They are there mainly to protect people’s lives and their property. But, what are they working for now? They are working to maintain President Yoweri Museveni in power. They would want to know what we are talking here. Otherwise, why should killings be taking place. In the Ten Point Programme, point number 1) was democracy and number 2) was security. With the war won, those should have also been settled, but we are talking about 23 years of stability and people are still being clobbered with iron bars!
That is what makes it strange. Why is this happen now?
Because there is impunity! Look at this Magara [Ramathan] murder case. Somebody shoots in unarmed crowd and they say, they got him and took him to police. This is a soldier mark you. Now Besigye [Kizza] is accused of treason, not murder and they say he must be tried in the court martial, Kazini is accused of causing financial loss to the army and they want him in court martial. This one who has murdered people is taken to a civilian court. So, these criminals will look at the lapses in dispensing justice and will exploit that.
From time to time, the police have arrested people and recovered illigal fire arms from them. How did our society plague into this degree of lawlessness?.
The issue is that there are so many guns all over but the interesting thing is that government does not know where all these guns are. I attended a conference on small arms here in Kampala and Minister Matia Kasaija (state for Internal Affairs) admitted that they don’t know where all these guns are. Look at this security organisation, many of them owned by UPDF officers; you just go to the armory and get guns.
When the minister says the government does not know where the guns are, is he saying they stole them from the armory?
He is simply saying they do not have an account of the guns and God forbid, if something happened in this city, I do not know what the command would look like. It is simply a lassie-faire in the management of our security.
But this trend was very minimal in the first 10 or so years of the NRM, what happened.
They were minimal because first of all, people had hope and were willing to cooperate but now they have since sat back after seeing all the vices that we came fighting against have tripled. When the government introduced the Kiboko Squad, the President said that he was happy people had now started defending themselves. Admitting that the state had failed, therefore putting security in the hands of the people. To me, I wish it had continued so that everybody now moves with a stick because it had been sanctioned by the president. Yes, there is no law so you move with your stick and the next day with a panga or spear if you feel that you need enhanced security. Then what more do you want to talk of a collapsed state if the president admits that security is now in the hands of the people.
The NRA cum UPDF was a disciplined army in its first 10 or so years but soon the Magaras and the PGB man went on the loose killing people. What happened?
You know as long as you do it in defense of Museveni’s presidency, you are home and dry. You see that is why for example you have not heard of a trial of the officers who burnt people in a train wagon in Mukura.
There are illegal guns not only held by thugs but even ordinary people moving around openly either posturing as security agents or anything else, why?
But do you know that some people now graze their cattle with guns? It is no longer in Karamoja. There is no war in Ankole, why should the Balalo [cattle keepers] graze cattle with guns? How can you tell me that somebody has 400 heads of cattle but he has no land? How did he acquire all these animals, developing them to reach thousands without land? How were they being moved from Gulu, to Teso, and back to Buliisa and in all these movements they are armed. So, the gun situation here is so porous. For example, you have to be careful when you are using these special hire cars, most of them are state operatives.
What does this mean for the state?
I wonder why Museveni keeps on contradicting himself. It seems he does not know that people remember his earlier comments. He is on record to have said whatever number of guns or soldiers you have, if you do not have the support of the people, you cannot sustain security. Now it answers your earlier question, in the first 10 years people had hope, over time they have seen poverty increase, they have lost trust in government. I don’t know if you see that the state is gradually failing. If a school can burn and Police, ISO, ESO, JATT, GISO cannot come up with a convincing report as to how a school or market came to burn, then you know that the state is collapsing.
Home Column Comment Finishing the fight against LRA
Finishing the fight against LRA
TUESDAY, 26 MAY 2009 18:46
POSTED BY ANTHONY RWAGA
In the months since the armies of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan launched Operation Lightning Thunder, a joint military offensive against the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, the threat to civilians in the region has dramatically intensified. Efforts to negotiate a political solution with the LRA ran aground in late 2008, and prospects for a peaceful end to the conflict are nonexistent as long as LRA leader Joseph Kony refuses to sign the deal that remains on the table. Unless Kony and the LRA’s other top commanders are apprehended or otherwise removed, the group’s campaign of terror will continue.
Cooperation between Uganda, Congo, and South Sudan in addressing the LRA as a shared regional threat is a major breakthrough, and should be welcomed by the international community. However, due primarily to domestic political pressures and concerns about the lengthy presence of a foreign military on his soil, Congolese President Joseph Kabila recently requested the withdrawal of the Ugandan army from northeastern Congo-the primary locus of the LRA’s current predations and regional efforts to end them. Many Ugandan troops, however, have stayed in Congo and continue to conduct “intelligence operations” against the LRA. Some low-scale fighting between the remaining Ugandan troops and the LRA has been reported, but these largely below-the-radar efforts are likely insufficient to corner the LRA leadership. Moreover, the Ugandan military, the Congolese army, and the U.N.peacekeeping mission in Congo, or MONUC, have not demonstrated the capacity to effectively protect civilians or pursue the LRA in these remote forests.
Genuine military pressure on the LRA will require the involvement of external actors. Given the United States’ support for the poorly executed “Lightning Thunder” and that U.S. leadership and investment is critical to planning and executing an operation with a greater chance of success, the Obama administration now has a responsibility and opportunity to help finish the job.
This will not be easy. While the LRA is on the run, it is dispersed in small groups over a vast expanse of challenging, intermittently populated terrain.
Although scattered, the LRA continues to conduct highly coordinated and ruthless attacks against civilians. Since mid-December 2008, the LRA has brutally murdered more than 1,000 people in northeastern Congo and southern Sudan and abducted nearly 250 children. In at least one case in northeastern Congo’s Orientale province an entire village was pillaged and burned to the ground. More than 180,000 Congolese have been forced from their homes, while in southern Sudan, a further 60,000 have been displaced. Because of poor planning, insufficient logistical support, and far too few U.N. peacekeepers and Congolese soldiers (those forces tasked with civilian protection in “Lightning Thunder”), local communities and the masses of internally displaced people are highly vulnerable. Humanitarian access in these remote areas is limited; the displaced are living hand to mouth in and around towns and villages, and scarce supplies of food and medicine are quickly being exhausted.
Absent any genuine opportunity for a political settlement, the international community has few attractive options to end this conflict, yet the need for action is urgent. Doing nothing will result in more death and destruction, and the LRA is already using the current space to reorganise and rebuild its military strength. The longer the international community waits, the more time the LRA will have to regroup and further wreak havoc- erasing the relative gains made by the three-month operation. The Congolese army is incapable of either protecting civilians or defeating the LRA, and Congolese forces themselves are regularly responsible for appalling human rights abuses, although they have been somewhat more disciplined in the northeast to date. MONUC is stretched near to its breaking point and principally preoccupied with the fragile situation in North and South Kivu provinces.
The United Nations is unlikely to contribute much more than limited tactical support to Congolese forces operating in the area.
Launching a new military operation without closely examining what went wrong with the “Lightning Thunder” and applying lessons learned will only result in greater civilian casualties and displacement while squandering valuable resources and political will. However, a revitalised and revamped military operation focused on apprehending the senior LRA leadership while simultaneously protecting civilians is the best way to defeat the insurgency and allow displaced civilians to return to their homes. The most likely practical option for success is more robust Western support for a second Ugandan-led operation. Shifting political winds in Kinshasa in recent weeks have opened the door for the Ugandan army to return in full force and with proper consultation and planning by the Congolese government. For a second Ugandan-led military operation to have a chance at success, however, it must have strong support from the United States and the international community, and the full commitment from the Congolese government and army to complete the job in a reasonable timeframe and operate in all LRA-affected areas of Congo-including Faradje.
Uganda also must provide credible assurances that Congolese fears about ulterior Ugandan motives (such as illegal extraction of Congolese resources) will not become reality. Regional armies and MONUC must make civilian protection an indisputable priority- from careful planning to acquiring necessary resources to executing regular patrols. The Congolese army should deploy proactively with MONUC support in civilian areas that have so far evaded attacks by the LRA, and the Congolese army and MONUC must also deploy to the main civilian centres to protect civilians and the large groupings of displaced people around these towns while the Ugandan army carries out operations to track and fight the LRA.
If the United States takes the lead in supporting a new Ugandan military operation, as Enough believes it should, it must provide solid planning, intelligence, coordination, and logistical support-and take greater responsibility for the execution and outcomes of the operation.
Home Cover Story Cover Story Portrait of an assasin?
Portrait of an assasin?
TUESDAY, 02 JUNE 2009 19:50
POSTED BY ANTHONY RWAGA
Francis Nuwagaba hails from Kyogo-Kafunjo village, Nyakaina parish, Buyanja sub-county in Rukungiri district. His father is Anselmo Byarugaba.
On May 3, an unknown man is alleged to have climbed over the wall fence of the residence of Security Minister Amama Mbabazi in Kololo and was shot dead by the military guards as he tried to flee. That is the official version of the police.
However nobody, be it the police or any other security agency, has told the country the man’s identity or his motive. Initial information suggested a failed attempt on Mbabazi’s life.
However, emerging information discredits the assassination claim. So was this man an assassin or a victim of a collapsed social relationship?
Since the day of the shooting, The Independent has undertaken a two-week extensive trail, right from the scene of crime in Kololo to the dead man’s home. It has established his identity and parents.
The man’s names are Francis Nuwagaba from Kyogo-Kafunjo village, Nyakaina parish, Buyanja sub-county in Rukungiri district. His father is Anselmo Byarugaba. When The Independent visited his home, Byarugaba confirmed that Francis Nuwagaba was his son but he had not seen his body nor did he know what exactly happened.
“Yes, Francis Nuwagaba is my son. But I can’t confirm whether he is dead or not because we have not seen his dead body apart from security operatives who came here with a newspaper picture of his dead body. We could not easily identify the body because we, as a family, have taken many years without seeing him,” Byarugaba said.
He said that Nuwagaba became unruly in the early stages of his childhood. He said that by Primary Two, Nuwagaba had started stealing people’s property including chicken.
“Omwana akaturema kare,” Byarugaba said in Runyakore meaning; that boy became unruly long time ago. He said his son would disappear from home and come back from time to time before going away again. For that reason, he did not know much about his son’s life.
Byarugaba said that the security operatives who came to his home last week included the Gombolola (sub-county) Internal Security Officer one Kamagara. They, however, did not tell the deceased’s family what exactly happened to their son.
“We don’t know anything about Nuwagaba whether he died long ago or not because nobody has come here to officially explain the circumstances that led to his shooting apart from press reports and the security operatives who came to ask whether he was our son,” Byarugaba said remorsefully.
The family has not held any funeral because they have scanty information and are also waiting for the body.
The Independent’s investigations revealed that Nuwagaba was a soldier in the UPDF 2nd Division in Mbarara but deserted the army in about 2004. It was not readily established what he had been doing up to the time of his death.
His father said that Nuwagaba having disappeared about 15 years ago, returned home around 2006. He stayed for a short time and disappeared again. He did not hear anything about his son again until his picture appeared in the press following the May 7 shooting. Asked whether Nuwagaba had ever been a soldier or had any link with Mbabazi, the grieving Byarugaba said he knew nothing about that.
“If they [government] want to imprison us because of our son, let them come but nobody in the family or village knows much about him. He last came here about two years ago. And when he came, he looked a fugitive and members of the family had to hide their money and phones. He later disappeared,” the father said.
However, the local residents said Nuwagaba disappeared from the village in 2006 after he allegedly killed a neighbour, Tugume aka Kiberi.
“Kiberi was their neighbour and used to fry popcorns before Nuwagaba hit him with an iron bar after a bar brawl killing him instantly, he fled since then,” a resident who preferred anonymity told The Independent in Buyanja.
When contacted, the area LC-I chairman, Dennis Kyohangiirwe confirmed the suspicion about Nuwagaba’s culpability in Tugume’s death.
“We highly believe that Nuwagaba is the one who killed Kiberi because they were together when he died before he fled about two years ago,” Kyohangiirwe said.
He echoed Byarugaba’s statement that Nuwagaba disappeared from the village long ago and there was no information that he had ever been a soldier.
So where does this leave the version that Nuwagaba was a former soldier?
The fact that Nuwagaba had disappeared from his home for more than 15 years and they did not know where he was and what he was doing, could explain why the residents and the parents might not have known his service in the military.
Secondly, since he had deserted the army in 2004, according to information from reliable security sources, upon his return he could have kept the information about his military service to himself to avoid arrest for desertion. Since he stayed for a short time and disappeared again, suggests why his parents and the residents might not have had the opportunity to learn of his engagement in the army.
The Kololo shooting incident has since raised several theories regarding the motive of the deceased’s entry into Mbabazi’s residence. But it has also sparked a puzzle of how the man scaled the high metal-spiked perimeter brick wall, into the compound which is guarded by about 30 armed soldiers. Mbabazi is probably the most heavily guarded minister in this country. The Independent has woven together information that points to the circumstances surrounding the shooting and how the man could have gained entry into the minister’s residence.
The UPDF spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye declined to comment on whether Nuwagaba was an army deserter. “Have you ever received a statement from me about that case? I am not briefed about that matter,” Kulayigye said in a tone that did not invite further questions.
Home Cover Story Cover Story Northern MPs’ anger shows national pain
Northern MPs’ anger shows national pain
TUESDAY, 26 MAY 2009 18:02
POSTED BY ANTHONY RWAGA
The recent recall of Ambassador Julius Onen’s appointment to the East African Community (EAC) has re-energised mostly members of parliament from northern Uganda in their charges that the government is marginalising their region. It has also returned the spotlight on the NRM government, upping accusations that sectarianism, nepotism and tribalism have centrally become the ultimate criteria in most senior appointments.
“The issue of Ambassador Onen was just a symptom of a big problem. As we talk now, people are talking about secession. Anybody can say the argument for ‘The Nile Republic’ is far fetched but that people are talking about it means people feel they do not belong here,” said Alice Alaso, the Soroti district Woman MP.
It was Mike Mukula, NRM’s deputy vice chairperson for Eastern Region, in December 2007 who first emphatically put it to President Museveni’s face in an NRM caucus meeting that public appointments today favoured only one region; the west.
The NRM government back in the late 80s to mid-90s, among other ways, built its political capital through demonising previous regimes by labelling them dictatorial and sectarian. The NRM professed their aversion to these vices and affirmed their commitment to eliminate them. In fact, removing the government way of conducting business based on religious, linguistic, and ethnic factional grounds formed one of its 10, and later 15-point programme. But as the years passed, NRM’s rhetoric has not matched its substance. To be sure, increasingly Museveni and other NRM officials do not talk much, if any, about the vices they once condemned.
Justice Ralph W. Ochan, who says he is familiar with Ambassador Onen’s Foreign Service record, wrote in a commentary in a local daily, that Onen’s situation reveals a simple dynamic of the diplomatic service where someone serves abroad and at home and as such Onen’s career progress refutes suggestions of marginalisation.
Onen’s recall, however, plays outside simple dynamics of diplomatic service. After all, Ochan is not one to say there are not areas of discontent in the Greater North. So, what are these other areas in which Onen’s situation emerges as just a microcosm?
Following Mukula’s charges of sectarianism in appointments in major sectors of government, The Independent over three editions between January and March 2008 sought to prove if there was any marrow in his claims. The Independent looked at the cabinet, permanent secretaries, ambassadors and their deputies, heads of public sector bodies and the top leadership of the military. What emerged then, and has not changed since, is a glaring discrepancy in the regional distribution of these said top government jobs. The Constitution of Uganda under the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy Section II Subsection IV states: “The composition of Government shall be broadly representative of the national character and social diversity of the country.”
The composition of the current government however cannot said to be anywhere close to this provision.
Selected northern Uganda statistical indicators
Out of a total of 23 senior army positions – from commander in chief to division commanders –, the north holds only two. The east has none while the west and central have 17 and 4 respectively. It is important to note that even out of the west, the largest chunk rests in the Ankole region. Out of the 26 cabinet positions, the north has three, east and central six each while the west has 11. Of all public sector bodies as of February 2007, only six are headed by people from the north. Otherwise, 31 are headed by people from the west, 21 by people from the central while 13 by people from the east. Three bodies are headed by people who do not particularly fall in any of these categories. There have not been changes in heads of these bodies since. A look at accounting officers as of 2007/2008 reveals similar discrepancies in composition. Of 98 offices, the west holds 41, central 28, East 14 and the north 13. The Independent could not determine the remaining two. Cast against the region’s percentage of the total population, the west occupies 44 percent of all top public appointments although it is only 26 percent of the population; the central occupies 30 percent with 17 percent of the population; the east and north share only 26 percent even when their combined population is at 47 percent. As The Independent noted then, a few reasons suffice to explain this trend. For instance, it can be argued that the army’s top leadership is composed mainly of Banyankore because they contributed highly to the bush struggle that ushered the current government into power. Or even that the west votes overwhelmingly for NRM and thus appointing many westerners is the reward for that support. But these reasons however are debunked by the argument that after 23 years in power, the NRM should have made efforts to fairly balance the distribution of top government jobs among ethnicities and regions to reflect the national character as the constitution stipulates.
Other effects of disproportionate sharing of national resources can be seen everywhere in the north.
Poverty
In February this year the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) issued a report: The Spatial Trends of Poverty and Inequality in Uganda: 2002-2005, which showed that across the country poverty had declined from 39% in 2002 to 31% in 2005.
Most of this decline was reported mainly in central and western regions but in northern Uganda 64.8% of the people were living below the poverty line. This was higher than any other part of the country.
It was followed by the eastern region at 38.4%, which was too far from the national average. The data in the report was derived from the 2005/2006 Uganda National Household Survey, and the 2002 Population and Housing Census which sampled about 7,426 households in 874 rural sub-counties in 58 districts.
Living below the poverty line means anybody who depends on less than a dollar a day.
This was a stinging statistic but it got little attention and there was no explanation for such poverty levels in northern Uganda.
Besides, it is noted that while Uganda is hailed as a success story for reducing HIV prevalence rate to 6.2% countrywide, the effects of the conflict in the north have made the region remain with a high rate at 8.2% only behind the central region.
The State of Ugandan Population report 2008 says the high HIV prevalence resulted partly from difficulty in disease surveillance in the region as many were cut off from public health services for the last two decades.
Other factors include presence of the army – a noted factor in high HIV transmission – for 21 years, high sexual violence, and congestion in the Internally Displaced Peoples camps.
Health
The problem was made worse by the lack of health infrastructure, education and skills training, poverty which exist up until today.
Health problems of the north are not only manifested in the HIV figures. Just like the rest of the country, the north lacks health workers. The situation in the north worsened because not many Ugandan health workers are willing to work in there due to the insurgence. Some demand a special ‘risk allowance”. The government has not put such incentives in place.
A visit to Anaka, a centre supposed to be a regional referral hospital for Amuru and parts of Pakwach gives a glimpse of the neglected health care in the north.
It is one of the 21 hospitals built across the country during the late president Obote’s regime. The buildings are now dilapidated, with what used to be a theatre in ruins.
One of the few nursing officers, Joyce Akumu, told The Independent she walks a long distance or hires a bicycle taxi to get to work.
The hospital serves a population of about 150,000 to 200,000. It has on average 100 in-patients and serves about 300 out-patients daily.
It was supposed to have seven doctors but has only two. When government advertised for 20 nurses and midwives for the hospital last year, only five midwives were willing to work in Anaka and one did not stay for a month.
The Medical Superintendent Dr Anen Olwedo says they have only 34 percent of the required staff.
When asked the last time the hospital was fully functional, the elders in the camp narrate with nostalgia.
“It was fully functioning till 1979. During the liberation war (1986) it was vandalised and it went on limping until 1992 when almost all staff left,” one of the camp leaders told The Independent.
“It was reopened in 1998 but it has never gone up to the standard it was at.”
Poor feeding
People in northern Uganda are acutely malnourished according to UNICEF reports in 2008. There has been a drop in children being immunised after many people returned home from the IDPs.
A 2004 the Human Development Index showed that half of the children in the north were stunted while 30% were “wasted”, a medical term that describes a worse form of malnutrition.
Last year’s population report indicated that while the maternal mortality rates in other parts of the country have reduced to as low as 435 deaths per 100,000 births, it is believed to be very high in the conflict affected areas of northern Uganda.
The area also has poor hygiene and sanitation statistics which has seen more than 10,000 people hospitalised with Hepatitis E virus in the last one year and about 156 people have died.
Education
The north is lagging behind in other development indicators like education.
The literacy rates in the north dropped as the security situation worsened from late 1980s. The investment in education that went into the older generations in north is easily seen. All across northern Uganda, it is not hard to find a village where most of the elderly are literate. But the literacy figures paint a gloomy picture with only 38 percent of women being literate and about 61 percent for men. Since most of the population was moved to camps at the height of the war against LRA, the situation has deteriorated with high school dropout rates.
While nationwide, the dropout rate at primary school is at about 17% for boys and 35% for girls as of 2008, in northern Uganda it is 54% for boys and 69% for girls.
The north has the highest percentages of people with no education in the country with males and females at 17 % and 35 % according to demographic surveys.
It’s well known that the introduction of Universal Primary Education in 1997 increased the enrolment ratio countrywide from about 3.4 million to 7.4 million by 2004 and primary level net enrolment rates increased from 62.3% in 1992 to 92% for girls and 94% for boys by 2006.
But in Kitgum district, about 86% of schools were displaced and temporarily incorporated in other schools, which resulted in immense overcrowding and inadequate infrastructure.
Other factors like lack of lack of food and parental oversight lead to high dropout rates.
The 2008 examination results released early this year both at primary and secondary levels revealed the extent of the education deficit in the north. While the whole country performance in PLE was generally poor, most schools in the north never had a pupil in Division One showing the extent of the regional inequality in education access, quality and hence performance.
There are high rates of teacher absenteeism in the north as many of the schools lack staff houses forcing teachers to commute long distances. It is common to find students and teachers walking to school at 10.00 am and this time most children in other parts of the country are probably into their fourth lesson.
Teachers and students in the north still walk as many as 20 km to get to school and some schools have not registered any student for A’Level exams at some point.
With a huge Diaspora backed by effective national programmes, the north would be able to improve or at least recover from these setbacks.
Instead last year the State of Population report 2008 showed that while the national life expectancy rate rose from 43 years to 50, in the north it was at 45.2 percent for women and 42.2 for men.
The way forward
The government has introduced several projects to revamp the Greater North. Among them, Poverty Action Fund (PAF) established in 1997/98 Financial Year created no substantial effect. According to the Uganda Debt Network report 2001/02 the management and expenditure of the fund was riddled with high corruption. The trend was not different from other projects like Northern Uganda Rehabilitation Programme (NURP) or Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF). The implementation of all of these has been flawed.
Leaders from northern Uganda have vowed not to allow any other subsequent projects meant for their region to be mishandled. It is for that reason they have focused on the yet-to-be-seen Peace Recovery and Development Plan for northern Uganda (PRDP). They want to see that its implementation terms are acceptable to them.
PRDP is a comprehensive framework which integrates and harmonises all initiatives committed to the rehabilitation and development of the north and north-eastern Uganda. These results have got to be in 4 established strategic objectives; Consolidation of State Authority, Rebuilding and Empowering Communities, Revitalisation of the Economy and Peace Building and Reconciliation.
The plan is designed to last three years, in which period (it is envisioned that) northern Uganda should have developed to the same footing with the rest of the country. To that, the government is budgeting for Shs 1.6 trillion. Of this money, government is to contribute 30% and donors, local and foreign, will contribute the rest. Believed to be the best recovery and development idea yet, the PRDP is meant to kick off in July this year.
Like the earlier interventions, PRDP budget is an additional apart from the national budget.
The association of MPs from the Greater North is in full agreement with CSOPNU (Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda), a coalition of CSOs established to advocate a just and lasting peace in northern Uganda and the way forward. They say there is need to establish a Northern Uganda Action Fund within the National Budget, which should be additional to ongoing allocations to affected districts. The fund “should be ring-fenced to avoid intermittent budget cuts, as was the case with Poverty Action Fund (PAF).” Such an affirmative action, they say, should last about 10 years, rather than the proposed 3-year PRDP timeframe.