UGANDA: Officials Complicit In Kololo Torture

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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A Year Without a Mexican: The Debilitating Loss of Economic Lifeblood

For years, there were rumors that the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant at the edge of town was under scrutiny by immigration authorities. Later that morning, Brackett's wife called with confirmation: She'd spotted two helicopters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in jackets and flak vests down by the slaughterhouse.

Brackett quickly drove to the hulking plant, which had been cordoned off by scores of ICE agents, state troopers, and sheriff's deputies. The authorities soon began to emerge from the building escorting workers, hundreds in all, and many in shackles. Mostly Guatemalan and Mexican immigrants, they were loaded onto white buses emblazoned with the Homeland Security logo, and taken away for detention and trial.

The 389 arrests eliminated more than one-third of the meatpacker's workforce and nearly one-fifth of the town's population. It also prompted an exodus of hundreds more Hispanic residents who were either afraid of being targeted or simply opted to escape the town's inevitable tailspin. Postville's businesses began to suffer almost immediately. Even the Wal-Mart in Decorah, a half-hour away, called Postville mayor Robert Penrod with concerns about the economic impact.

Read More At AlterNet