Nairobi — HUMAN RIGHTS abuses by both rebel forces and government troops in Uganda have increased alarmingly over the past year, according to a major new report from a coalition of NGOs released last week.

The 73-page report, "Abducted and Abused: Renewed War in Northern Uganda," puts most of the blame for the growing humanitarian crisis in the north on the rebel Lord's Resistance Army which, since June 2002, has abducted nearly 8,400 children, a sharp rise from 2001.

The LRA has also targeted religious leaders, aid providers, and those living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.

Said Lloyd Axworthy, the former Canadian minister for external affairs who is now executive director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues in Vancouver: "Child abduction, murder, and mutilation are the signatures of the LRA in this war,"

The Liu Institute for Global Issues released the report together with the Peace and Human Rights Centre in Kampala, Human Rights Focus in Gulu, and Human Rights Watch in New York.

The 17-year conflict between the LRA and the Ugandan government intensified in March 2002, when the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF), launched a military offensive, "Operation Iron Fist," against LRA bases in southern Sudan. The offensive failed to accomplish its aim of destroying the LRA, which evaded the UPDF and in June 2002 returned to northern Uganda. The renewed conflict is taking its highest toll ever.

Fear of LRA abduction has driven approximately 20,000 children to escape nightly into Gulu and other towns. These children sleep in verandas, on church grounds and at local hospitals, returning home each morning, becoming known locally as "night commuters."

An estimated 800,000 northern Ugandans are internally displaced due to LRA attacks and government orders - approximately 70 per cent of the entire population of the three war-affected districts in northern Uganda.

While the Ugandan government is obligated to intervene to stop these violations, its own forces have committed gross abuses, including torture, rape, underage recruitment, and arbitrary detention, the report says. The government has also increased the suffering of northern Uganda's population through the forced displacement of civilians into IDP camps, which have little or no protection.

But UPDF soldiers and other government forces accused by civilians of serious crimes such as murder, torture, or rape often escape trial or sanction, creating a public perception of impunity.

Samuel B. Tindifa, director of the Human Rights and Peace Centre, said: "Not only has the Ugandan government failed to protect its citizens adequately, it has also actively violated their rights, detained them for long periods without showing cause, and recruited children into the army and home guards."

The UPDF in northern Uganda arrests civilians on suspicion of rebel collaboration with little or no evidence, often holding them for rough interrogation or torture before turning them over to the police for prosecution. The prosecutors then charge the suspects with treason or terrorism, which allows the government to hold them for up to 360 days without bail and without having to present any evidence.

The human-rights organisations urged the UN Secretary-General to appoint a special representative for northern Uganda to secure the release of abducted children by conducting "shuttle diplomacy" between the LRA and the Ugandan government. They also called upon the Sudanese government to end its support of the LRA and upon donor countries to monitor military assistance to Uganda to ensure that the government observes human-rights standards.

The four organisations called on the LRA to end its attacks on civilians, to stop abducting children and adults, and to release the abductees.

The organisations also urged the government of Uganda to end impunity for human-rights violations by government security and armed forces; review all cases of treason and terrorism suspects to ensure that sufficient evidence exists to justify detention; cease using treason or terrorism as a holding charge for those arbitrarily detained in areas in which rebels are active; take effective measures to protect civilians; and permit those living in internally displaced persons camps to move wherever they wish, except for extreme circumstances of insecurity.