Johannesburg – The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Ugandan government to shut down detention centres and bring to account officers responsible for torturing detainees.
The sixty-two-page report, published recently, detailed the extent of the abuse meted out in detention centres. The detainees are government critics and opposition supporters.
The report documents the torture, unlawful detention, forced disappearances and arbitrary arrests occurring from 2018 until 2021. According to Ayesha Kajee, research fellow at Africa Asia Dialogues (AFRASID), this situation is one that has been known about “for several years”.
It is not just political activists who are thrown into detention centres and forcibly detained but “anybody who opposes any arm of the state,” said Kajee.
“Journalists, lawyers, storytellers, opponents of the current regime there, the Museveni regime which has been in power since 1986, all of these people are liable to be targeted by the Ugandan police, the military and the internal security organisation, which is like a domestic KGB in Uganda.”
The situation is unlikely to change through democratic means soon. Although the current government has lost “mass political appeal”, it still maintains its power through rigging elections and by using violence to force anyone who opposes it to submit, explained Kajee.
Under international law, the actions carried out by the regime to maintain power are illegal. As of 2019, it is illegal domestically. Those who are found to be carrying out such acts can be prosecuted, but so far nobody has.
“The domestic law passed in 2019 allows for individual prosecutions of anybody alleged to have carried out such acts. Yet thus far, nobody has been prosecuted under this law and nobody has been found guilty. The Ugandan parliament itself two years ago in February 2020 completed a report into these alleged disappearances, detainees, tortures, harassments etc and recommended a further investigation and prosecution of those deemed responsible but of course that hasn’t happened.”
What is ironic to Kajee is that while Western countries are calling for human rights prosecutions against Russia for their actions against Ukraine, they have been silent when it comes to the human rights abuses in Uganda.
“Most Western European countries are calling for human rights prosecutions against Russia who, according to them, has violated human rights norms and laws in the Ukraine yet because the Ugandan government, Mr Museveni has always been an ally of the West, the outcry against the atrocities and abuses perpetrated by his regime has never been as loud as the outcry we’re currently seeing in Europe.”
The HRW report indicates that detainees were often abducted by security officials from their homes or workplaces in unmarked vehicles, sometimes by gunpoint. In Kampala, these cars are called drones, said Kajee.
The range of torture methods carried out by the security officials in detention centres is not limited to physical abuse and includes sexual abuse. Waterboarding and a method called rambo, which involves suspending people in a plank position from the ceiling for hours on end, are some of the torture methods noted.
HRW has spoken to fifty people when drafting their report. Multiple verifications of the tortures leave no doubt this is taking place. The Ugandan elections were initially postponed in 2020 because of the pandemic but took place in January 2021. The situation escalated leading up to the elections.
Opposition leader, singer turned politician Bobi Wine, was subjected “to a lot of harassment to detention and even torture himself and certainly people in his inner circle were as well,” said Kajee.
“Ten to twelve years ago the political opponent was different. The political opponent then was Mr Museveni’s personal doctor or the person who had been his personal doctor. Mr [Kizza] Besigye, and the same thing was happening to Mr Besigye and his inner circle, and now the same thing is happening to Bobi Wine who actually has lots of popularity in Uganda.”
Uganda is anything but a democracy despite presenting itself as such, said Kajee. Since international law and international human rights laws are not upheld in the country, it cannot be a democratic country, reasons Kajee.
Unfortunately, a regime change will be very unlikely soon. According to Kajee, those who can attempt a coup, along with the vast majority of educated urban Ugandans, are ethnically and economically aligned with Museveni.
There seems to be only two options for the regime to change; hope the corrupt system changes or wait for Museveni to pass on from old age. Though civil activism and civil society protest has worked in other countries facing a similar problem.
The Ugandan government has not shied away from imprisoning those that express discontent with the current regime over social media or any other platform. Protestors face the risk of being sent to detention centres and even killed.
“There is a limit to the number of people you can kill before people start protesting. There is a limit to the number of people that can be held in your jails before there is a public outcry,” said Kajee.
The solution is to now try and create as much noise as possible to get those on the international stage to acknowledge what is happening and try to get their help.
“Civic activism and also drumming up international support and regional support from the other democracies and so-called democracies in the region might be perhaps the only recourse for ordinary Ugandan people to come together and see a more just democratic order is put into place.”
While there could be a Ugandan Spring, Kajee warned that an African Spring could be very much likely given the rising prices in fuel and food which was one of the reasons for the Arab Spring.
“The Arab Spring of 2011 to 2013 were actually triggered by bread riots by a young man setting himself alight in Tunisia in protest at the high cost of food etc. I’m afraid I have to tell you that food and fuel are going to soar if this war in Europe continues and that will bring about a very real possibility of not just a Ugandan Spring but also perhaps an African Spring in various parts of the continent.”
