Politiet i Uganda har skiftet navn, og nye ledere er kommet til, men politiet udsætter fortsat uganderne for mord, tortur og afpresning, skriver Human Rights Watch i en ny rapport.
KAMPALA, 23 March 2011: The Ugandan police Rapid Response Unit frequently operates outside the law, carrying out torture, extortion, and in some cases, extrajudicial killings, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
Ugandan authorities should urgently open an independent investigation into the unit’s conduct and activities and hold accountable anyone responsible for human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said.
The 59-page report, “Violence Instead of Vigilance: Torture and Illegal Detention by Uganda’s Rapid Response Unit,” documents the unit’s illegal methods of investigation and serious violations of the rights of the people it arrests and detains.
The unit has a history of violent and unlawful operations since it was formed by President Yoweri Museveni in 2002 as Operation Wembley, an ad-hoc security entity commanded by an active member of the Ugandan military. Later, the unit became the Violent Crime Crack Unit and was formally taken under police command. In 2007, it was renamed the Rapid Response Unit.
“Changing the unit’s name, leadership, and command makes no difference to the people this unit tortures, detains, or in some cases kills,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities and the donors who fund the police need to get serious about holding abusive officers of this unit accountable.”
The Human Rights Watch investigation spanned the period from November 2009 to January 2011 and included over 100 interviews with people arrested and formerly detained by the unit, widely known as RRU, as well as former detainees’ family members, current and former employees of the unit, other police officials, intelligence officers, lawyers, journalists, and civil society members.
Outside the Law
The unit’s mandate is to investigate “violent crime,” but officers and affiliated personnel have made arrests for a wide range of alleged crimes, from petty offenses to terrorism.
The unit’s personnel typically operate in unmarked cars, wear civilian clothing with no identifying insignia, and carry a variety of guns, from pistols to larger assault rifles. The unit’s members have on some occasions transported suspects in the trunks of unmarked cars.
Human Rights Watch also found that the unit routinely uses torture to extract confessions. Sixty of 77 interviewees who had been arrested by RRU told Human Rights Watch that they had been severely beaten at some point during their detention and interrogations.
In 2010, at least two people died of injuries from beatings during interrogations, and four people were shot and killed in the course of an arrest. Several former detainees told Human Rights Watch that they had witnessed co-detainees die from beatings during interrogations, but did not know the names of the individuals.
Scores of victims across Uganda cited nearly identical treatment during interrogations by the unit’s officers. Detainees were beaten on the joints with batons over the course of several days while handcuffed in stress positions with their hands under their legs.
Human Rights Watch also found that RRU personnel regularly beat detainees with batons, sticks, glass bottles, bats, metal pipes, padlocks, table legs, and other objects. In rare instances, the unit’s officers inserted pins under detainees’ fingernails or used electric shock torture. The Ugandan authorities at all levels have a responsibility both to end these practices and to prosecute those responsible, Human Rights Watch said.
Theft of money during investigations is a common complaint by former detainees. Some were also told they would be released if family members would bring cash to the officers. In several instances, victims of robberies told Human Rights Watch that RRU officers told them money had been recovered during investigations, but then the officers kept part or all of the money.
Uganda has a responsibility under international law to investigate allegations of abuses by its police and security forces and to hold those responsible to account.
