The report, entitled "Open Secret: Illegal Detention and Torture by the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force in Uganda," is based on research between last August and February of this year. 106 cases of illegal detention were uncovered by HRW, which is based in New York.
"In more than 25 instances, detainees were also tortured or subjected to other ill-treatment," said the report, which traced back detentions over the last two years and found that 3 detainees had died from abuse suffered and another detainee was shot and killed at home after his release, according to eyewitness reports.
The Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT) responsible for or connected to those responsible for the abuses pulls its personnel from a combination of military, police and intelligence organisations, and operates under the command of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI). JATT headquarters - which also serves as a detention centre - is located in the wealthy suburb of Kololo.
Because rights groups are denied access to the centre, which is not considered a legal detention centre by Uganda’s constitution, HRW interviewed former detainees there about their treatment and what they witnessed.
"Some described being hit repeatedly with the butt of a gun; slapped in the head and ears; or beaten with fists, whips, canes, chairs and shoes," according to the report. "JATT and CMI personnel put detainees into painful stress positions and forced red chilli pepper into eyes, nose and ears, which causes excruciating pain… Some described being shocked with electricity. They reported watching others being beaten and tortured by JATT agents, as well as observing other people with bruising, swelling and wounds."
Detention centres in Uganda are supposed to be "gazetted" - placed on an official government register - in order to be considered legal. The Kololo facility, among others, does not meet this requirement. Illegal detention centres are often called "safe houses". "The history of these kind of secret ‘safe houses’ has a long and quite horrible history in Uganda that dates back to the Idi Amin era," Paul Ronan, a senior policy analyst with Resolve Uganda, told IPS.
Amin was the military dictator who ruled Uganda for nearly all of the 1970s. Harsh repression and brutal human rights abuses under his rule left more than 100,000 dead - by conservative estimates.
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