Charles Ariko
16 July 2008
Kampala — Security agencies are now employing new methods of torture known as 'invisible torture,' where victims are subjected to maximum harm without leaving traces like scars or bodily bruises, according to a new human rights report.
The report titled 'The Human Rights Status Report 2007', released by the Foundation of Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), says the new trend of torture was recorded by doctors and psychologists at the African Centre for Torture and Treatment of Torture Victims.
The doctors reportedly noticed a growing number of patients with cases of 'invisible torture' during 2007, the period covered by the report.
According to the report, the commonest methods of torture reported in 1996 were severe beatings administered with rifle butts, sticks, electrical cables and other objects.
Other methods included tying the victims' hands and feet, keeping detainees tied together in mud pits, and inflicting pain to the penis or testicles.
The report also noted that incidents of torture by security agencies in the country were recorded, although on a smaller scale than in the past.
In their latest report, FHRI says the methods of torture used in the past were now being dropped in favour of the new ones.
"A person is beaten in the joints systematically without tearing the skin but great damage is done to the body," the report said.
The report named the UPDF, the Police and its specialised agency, the Violent Crime Crack Unit (VCCU), as one of the most persistent perpetrators of torture.
The report also said a large number of security agencies are authorised to arrest and detain individuals, making it difficult to identify who has arrested an individual, and who is responsible for the torture.
Quoting the former director of monitoring and inspection at the Uganda Human Rights Commission, the report said VCCU, now renamed the Rapid Response Unit, ranks highest on the list of perpetrators, and taints the image of the Police Force.
The report said although the rapid response unit denies claims of torture, it has never allowed independent investigators on its premises.
"This denial of access complicates the ability of organisations such as FHRI to determine the identities of the true perpetrators of torture. When victims of torture are discovered at police stations, the Force say any mistreatment happened prior to the individual's arrest; at the hands of a mob or other security agency.
"Without proper access to facilities, no independent assessment or investigation can be done," the report stated.
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So how is this different from what is happening in Zimbabwe ? Uganda is the only country where people have their heads in the sand, when all reality around them indicates that they are living in a military dictatorship that is as oppressive, torturous, and murderous as Mugabes or Bashirs are. Where in the world, except Uganda, do you find a substantive presidential contender thrown to jail just before the elections and has to spend decades fending off bogus trumped felony charges ? The Museveni government has abused and continues to abuse the electoral process, the judiciary, the police and the military institutions in order to maintain a political stronghold on the country; it is simply inherently and insidiously brutal. And to suggest that Museveni should even feature in the negotiations of the Sudanese Darfur genocide is the height of hypocrisy. Museveni's government, over the last twenty three years has committed atrocities not only within Uganda, but almost in nearly all the countries Uganda is neighbours with. The Rwandan war, a precursor to the 1994 genocide, was launched in Uganda; the Congo civilian war was fought directly by Uganda; the wars in southern Sudan involve Uganda; on more than one occassion Uganda has had military confrontations with Kenya. The Lord Resistance Army LRA have their case with the International Criminal Court, ICC, the Uganda government has its case with International Court of Justice, ICJ, a different court, where they have been ordered to pay the Kinshasa Congo tens of billions of dollars for plundering/stealing Congos resources. Some people or somebody in Uganda needs to wake up real soon before it is too late. What Bashir has done to Darfur is exactly what Museveni has done to northern Uganda or Mugabe did in Matabeleland: genocide. They should all be charged in the ICC.