US concerned by restricted political activity

The US ambassador to Uganda, Martin Brennan, said this week that the human rights situation in the country had significantly improved, but that his country was still concerned by flaws in the electoral process, together with political intimidation, according to the government-owned New Vision newspaper. "In Uganda now, you are able to do things you wouldn't do before. Things have improved tremendously," the paper quoted Brennan as saying, during the hand-over of the US State Department's 2001 country report to Margaret Sekaggya, chairwoman of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC). The US report itself painted a somewhat darker picture of the situation than Brennan, saying that Uganda's rights record generally remained poor throughout 2001, due to restrictions on political activity. These were highlighted during the presidential elections in March (when President Yoweri Museveni won a second and final five-year term) and parliamentary elections in June, as a result of which the president's National Resistance Movement (NRM) retained its hold on power, it said. Under Museveni's "no-party system", political parties are banned from holding national conventions, endorsing candidates, issuing platforms or opening offices outside the capital. Instead, all political activity being restricted to the confines of the Movement system, with every Ugandan adult ostensibly an NRM member. The US also expressed concern over the level of general insecurity which persisted in different parts of country last year. Although observers believed the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections reflected the general will of the people, both were "marred seriously" - particularly in the days leading up to the elections - by limited space for political party activities, incidences of violence, intimidation, fraud and electoral irregularities that led to a flawed electoral process, according to the State Department. "There were credible reports from opposition candidates that security personnel, including UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Forces] soldiers, intimidated them and disrupted their rallies and that local government officials deliberately obstructed opposition political events," its 26-page report stated. The Ugandan government generally respected the freedom of speech and of the press, but there were also some instances in which it infringed those rights, it said. "The government restricted the freedom of assembly and association, and the constitutional restrictions on political activity effectively continued to limit these rights. However, political parties continued operating with fewer restrictions," it added. Both government security forces and insurgent forces committed serious human rights abuses during 2001, according to the State Department. Although there were no confirmed reports of politically motivated killings by government forces during the election period, members of the security forces and the police sometimes used excessive force and committed a number of extrajudicial killings, it said. In the course of their operations, state and paramilitary security forces (including the Directorate of Military Intelligence) sometimes arbitrarily arrested and detained civilians, including opposition politicians and their supporters, it stated. "Despite measures to improve on the discipline and training of the forces, and despite the punishment of some security force officials guilty of abuses, abuses by the state security forces sometimes resulted in deaths and remained a problem throughout the country," it added. The killing and abduction of civilians, including children, by the insurgent Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the west of the country decreased during 2001, the US reported. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) - which Washington has listed, along with the ADF, as a terrorist organisation - continued to attack civilians from its bases in southern Sudan, but the attacks waned during the year due to decreasing support from Sudan, it added. General insecurity had increased in northeastern Uganda in 2001, with warriors from the Karamojong pastoralist community in Moroto and Kotido districts mounting raids, mainly in neighbouring Katakwi. There were also reports of Karamojong warriors continuing a practice by which they claim unmarried women as wives by abducting and raping them, the report said. Besides insecurity, incidences of vigilante justice increased and were reported daily throughout the year; domestic violence, rape and child abuse also remained a serious concern, the report added. While the State Department document focused mostly on human rights concerns, US Ambassador Martin Brennan cautioned that it was just a chronicle of events, suggesting that the context and trend of human rights were two different matters. "The assessment of whether the glass is half-empty or half-full is often a judgement call," The New Vision quoted him as saying. In a separate development, the UHRC has urged Museveni's government to intensify its efforts towards strengthening relations with Sudan, as a key element in improving the security and human rights situation in northern Uganda. "The government should intensify efforts to strengthen relations between Sudan and Uganda, which will hopefully deny the LRA a base for retreat after attacks on Uganda," the Commission's 2001 report stated. Ugandan troops have recently moved inside Sudan in pursuit of LRA rebels, and with the public blessing of the Sudanese government, after LRA incursions into Apac, Gulu and Kitgum districts.