The NGO has collected the testimonials of 51 people who have described the abuses of which they have been victims in the hands of the police, the army and intelligence services.
Le Monde with AFP
The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) asks the Government of Ugandan the closure of the illegal detention centers used by the security services to repress the opposition to power, in a report published Tuesday, March 22 documenting the abuses committed in these clandestine sites.
HRW has collected the testimonials of 51 people, including 34 former detainees and removal witnesses, who described the abuses of which they were victims in the hands of the police, the army and intelligence services (ISO ) between April 2019 and November 2021.
In particular, this period was marked by a fierce repression at the time of the elections of January 2021, which saw President Yoweri Museveni, at the head of Uganda since 1986, re-elected at the end of a qualified ballot of “masquerade “By the opposition.
“Human Rights Watch calls the Ugandan government to immediately close all the so-called secure houses and unauthorized detention centers,” written HRW, asking to “release all detainees (…) or to translate them without delay before a court. To be charged with an offense recognized by the law “.
Tailled and tortured
In the report, the victims interviewed – members of the opposition, sympathizers or simple protesters – tell their arrest at home, at work or in the street, embedded in vans without license plate nicknamed “drones” .
They claim to have been arbitrarily detained in overseered secret venues, including a site called “base one” on the outskirts of the Kampala capital and another on an island of Lake Victoria. They say they have been beaten and tortured, especially according to a technique called “Rambo”, consisting of suspending the inmates on the ceiling for a dozen hours with chains around the neck, size and knees.
Some say they have had torn nails, been burned with iron, have suffered electric discharges, injections of unknown substances or sexual violence, or have seen inmates with bricks hanging on the testicles.
“The Ugandan authorities must urgently reform the police and other security agencies to dismantle the structures that have allowed these horrible abuses to occur and remain unpunished,” says Oryem Nyeko, researcher on Uganda. within the NGO.
In a report of February 2020, the Ugandan Human Rights Committee reported cases of illegal detention and torture in unofficial centers. His investigation requests remained dead letter, according to HRW.
In recent years have been marked in Uganda by increased repression against journalists, incarcerations of lawyers or the museum of opposition leaders. In early February, the writer and opposing Kakwenza Rukirabashaija fled to Germany, explaining having to follow care after being tortured in detention. He had been arrested at the end of December 2021, then charged with “offensive communication” towards President Museveni and his son for a series of tweets.