VII. Abuses by JATT

Human Rights Watch has obtained information on several cases in which JATT personnel have been implicated in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. An extrajudicial killing is a deliberate unlawful killing by the security forces. Under t he International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, an enforced disappearance occurs when a person is deprived of his or her liberty, whether under arrest, detention, or otherwise, by state authorities, and this is followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of the detained person. [108] The practices of extrajudicial killings and "disappearances" violate basic human rights, including the right to life, the right to liberty and security of the person, the right to a fair and public trial, as well as the prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment.

Abusive behavior by security forces persists when perpetrators are not held accountable for their actions. Rooting out abusive actions requires more than new policies and commitments to reform; it requires that would-be perpetrators know that if they order or participate in abuses such as torture, "disappearances" and extrajudicial killings, they will go to prison and their careers will come to an end. In addition, individuals with command control over JATT personnel may also be responsible for abuses carried out by their forces under the doctrine of command responsibility. Commanders and civilian leaders may be prosecuted for crimes in violation of international law as a matter of command responsibility when they knew or should have known about the commission of the crimes and took insufficient measures to prevent them or punish those responsible.

Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances

Saidi Lutaaya

JATT arrested Saidi Lutaaya around November 22, 2007, from the Old Taxi Park in Kampala where he worked as a hawker. [109] Witnesses recalled his arrest as coinciding with the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Kampala for the CHOGM. [110] Two days later, the Voice of Africa radio program broadcast that the body of Saidi Lutaaya was at the mortuary at Mulago hospital in Kampala. A nurse from the hospital recognized Lutaaya and wanted to make sure his family was informed, so she phoned the radio station. [111] According to eyewitnesses, those who attempted to collect his body were told that soldiers had come and taken the body away. Nurses informed family that Lutaaya had been brought to the hospital early in the morning by soldiers. One said that the man had "a hole in his foot and the bone of his lower leg was out, and that he was hit in the head with a hammer, blood was oozing out of his body." He was still alive. He had been registered as Sergeant Lutaaya and was wearing an army jacket. Soldiers told the nurses to call the soldiers who brought him to the hospital if and when he died, which they did later that night. [112]

Friends and family continued to search for news of the whereabouts of Lutaaya's body. Eventually, a friend was approached by men he knew to be informers for JATT. He was told to tell Lutaaya's wife not to give money to anyone who approached claiming to know Lutaaya's whereabouts. "He said that Saidi was dead. People will come to her and say that they can help her but they cannot. He is dead." [113]

Two detainees who were in Kololo at the time of Lutaaya's detention remember seeing him there. One told Human Rights Watch that Lutaaya was held in a room, referred to as Number 7, which was next to a small building where the toilets are located. It is separate from the main house in the compound. [114]

Because Lutaaya was not held with other male detainees in the garage of the main house, details of his detention and the manner of his death remain unclear. One detainee who knew Lutaaya from his neighborhood told Human Rights Watch that he saw Lutaaya trying to stand up and falling over repeatedly while guards told him he would be beaten for pretending to be injured. [115] Then, three co-detainees were ordered to put Lutaaya's injured body in a pickup truck and he was taken to the hospital. Several detainees who were brought to Kololo after Lutaaya's death remarked that soldiers there occasionally mentioned Lutaaya's beating as having been very severe. [116]

Lutaaya's friends and family members have sought information from government authorities about is whereabouts. They have to date received no information. [117] On March 9 2009, hospital administrators gave Lutaaya's family his death certificate, which noted that he had been brought into the hospital on November 23 2007, comatose, and that his cause of death had not been ascertained. The section of the certificate which asks for details of the "morbid conditions" giving rise to the cause of death was not completed. [118]

In a response to Human Rights Watch, CMI denied any knowledge of the case of Saidi Lutaaya. [119]

Tayebwa Yasin alias Hamza Kaifa

Tayebwa Yasin had been formally charged with terrorism and sent in Luzira prison on April 2008, accused with others of involvement with the ADF. The prison registry notes that "Tayebwa Yasin, alias Hamza Kaifa" died on June 9, 2008, age 20, at Mulago hospital. [120] There is no mention in the registry of the cause of his death, but four former detainees from Kololo reported to Human Rights Watch that Yasin had been beaten very badly by JATT personnel while detained in Kololo. They said that he had been beaten repeatedly and punched in the chest, and as a result, could not walk. [121] Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm the official cause of his death.

Isa "Drago" Kiggundu

Ugandan authorities told journalists that Isa Kiggundu was arrested on May 15, 2000, for allegedly carrying out bombings in Kampala in 1998. [122] He was paraded in front of journalists at the Makindye Military Police barracks on June 24, 2000. Media reports at the that time indicated that he "confessed that he killed 35 people and injured 148 in addition to destroying millions worth of property." [123] He was subsequently charged with terrorism, and received an amnesty in 2001. [124] However, he spent one and half years in Mbuya barracks, and was then sent to Kigo prison, where he spent another three years, before being released in 2006. [125] His history in the courts is difficult to follow, but those familiar with the case claimed that he was arrested several times, received amnesty twice and was tortured several times. [126] In early 2007, Kiggundu was released on bail.

Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that on October 18, 2007, Isa Kiggundu was home with his family when four cars of men in plain clothes came to the house. [127] A man with an AK-47 assault rifle approached the house and began to fire into the house. Family members tried to run, but there were children in the house and adults hesitated to leave them unassisted. Kiggundu emerged from the house holding his several-month-old baby daughter; he was shot and killed in the hail of bullets, but his baby daughter survived the attack. [128] After the gunfire died down, witnesses saw the assailants call the police, who arrived on the scene. The men then told the crowd that they were very lucky because they had just eliminated a notorious thief.

On October 18, 2007, the Ugandan armed forces announced that JATT had been responsible for what they deemed to be a lawful killing. [129] The UPDF website posted a press release with the headline "ADF terrorist put out of action." The press release notes that, "An ADF terrorist, Drago Kiggundu, alias 'Moses,' 'Muhammed,' 'Dan' was this afternoon of 18th October 2007 put out of action by the UPDF Joint Anti Terrorism troops in Wakiso Town, Wakiso District. Drago was responsible for twenty incidents of bomb attacks in and around Kampala between March 1997 and February 2007 in which at least 36 innocent people were killed and over 100 others injured. . . . Upon release, Drago was again found responsible for the bomb attack at Natete Junction on February 16, 2007 in which 5 people were killed and two others injured. At the time of his death, he was still planning more terrorist activities." [130]

Human Rights Watch could not find evidence that Kiggundu was charged with any crime in 2007, nor any evidence that his killing has been investigated by authorities. At the time he was gunned down, he was on bail for terrorism, so if the authorities believed he was responsible for a bombing in 2007, they could have prosecuted him under proper legal procedures for that alleged crime.

Abdu Semuge nyi

In July 2006 Human Rights Watch wrote to the Minister of Internal Affairs about the alleged electrocution and death of Abdu Semuge nyi, a detainee in JATT custody . He was among others arrested on suspicion of being associated with the ADF rebels. Unknown security agents detained him in the village of Ntoroko in April 2006 and then Karugutu army barracks in western Uganda. From there he was taken to the JATT compound in Kololo.  Individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that they witnessed him being tortured in the Kololo facility run by JATT. [131]

One woman who was held in Kololo for over a week told Human Rights Watch:

I saw Abdu Semugenyi before he died. One night, [JATT agents] brought two men outside near where I was tied to a tree. They asked me if I knew one of them. I said I had never seen him. He was in a terrible condition. He couldn't speak and there was a lot of blood. They tied the other man to a tree nearby. The soldiers lifted the man in terrible condition into the car and I never saw him again. Later I saw the man who had been tied to the tree in the Central Police Station before I was sent to Luzira. He told me that man in the terrible state was named Semugenyi. I remember him well. [132]

One eyewitness told Human Rights Watch that Semugenyi was electrocuted to death. [133] While the authorities first denied his detention, they later claimed that Semugenyi escaped. [134] The authorities have never handed over his body to his family. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture brought the case to the attention of the Uganda authorities on August 8, 2006 and asked for information and investigations into the case. The government of Uganda did not respond to the rapporteur's inquiry. [135]

Cases of Torture during Interrogations by JATT

For most detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the focus of interrogation by JATT revolved around knowledge of ADF activities. However, some were told that if they agreed to work with JATT as informants, they would be released from their detention and not charged with any crime. The use of former ADF as paid agents does not appear to be uncommon. Indeed, the head of CMI told Human Rights Watch that several current JATT personnel were former rebels. [136]

JATT also questioned suspects about what they had heard being preached in local mosques, or were told to stop preaching in mosques. Some detainees were asked about the whereabouts of individuals who reside in their neighborhoods, pray in their mosque or send their children to the same school. Foreigners were asked about affiliations and business interaction with various groups including those listed as terrorist organizations by the United States government. [137]

Torture

Kololo detainees were questioned by interrogators both inside the residential compound run by JATT and by interrogators in various buildings inside the CMI compound in Kitante. Sixteen were shuttled back and forth between the two locations for interrogation and torture. [138]

Former detainees reported that they were tortured in sessions lasting several hours, repeatedly over a few days, by the same men, in front of other detainees who were also being mistreated. JATT personnel beat detainees with various objects including batons, pistols, a cricket bat, whips, shoes, and chairs. Several were beaten until they lost consciousness for periods of time. One man described to Human Rights Watch having blood coming from his ears after having been beaten on the head and ears for several days. [139] Another told Human Rights Watch that he urinated blood for weeks after his interrogation. [140] A third said that after three days of beatings lasting four or five hours per day, he could not walk, his legs were swollen and that due to extreme pain in his joints, he could only crawl for several days after his interrogation. [141]

One detainee was held for seven months in Kololo and then released without charge. During his time in Kololo, he was beaten during interrogations several times. He told Human Rights Watch:

They asked me, "What do you people do in that mosque? Why do you pray there and what are you planning? Are there certain things that you are trying to organize? What are you planning?" I said I didn't know what they were talking about to all the questions. Three men were asking me these questions, a boss man and two others. One of them told me that if I didn't answer the questions, I would be beaten. When I continued to deny knowing anything, they opened up a cupboard in the room and took out a black whip. They slashed me with it six times. . . They said, "So you have refused to tell us what we need to know." Then they took off my Muslim cap and took off all my clothes so I was just in my underpants. They told me to lie down on the floor and then they began beating me. They were saying to me, "Are you sure you aren't ADF? Are you sure you have no bombs?" They beat me very badly; every part of me and blood was coming out of me all over. Someone was writing things down in a notebook in the room. [142]

Registration procedures for detainees entering Luzira prison require guards to note the physical condition of new arrivals in the prison registry. These prison guards were in a position to observe the well-being of those detainees recently transferred from Kololo. However, Human Rights Watch is not aware that prison officials knew which detainees had previously been held by JATT in Kololo or any other safehouse run by JATT. Luzira prison officials permitted Human Rights Watch researchers to read through the registry. One entry, for a prisoner charged with terrorism, noted he had "marks of sticks as a result of torture from a safe house." [143]

Human Rights Watch found that during CHOGM in November 2007, five detainees who had been interrogated at CMI were brought by JATT agents to another safehouse in a residential area, thought to be in Kisaasi north of Kololo. [144] One of the five could not walk and required help to move because of injuries to his lower leg. One of his co-detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch recognized the man as someone he knew from his community and knew his name. [145]

Three of the detainees who had been held in this safehouse were interviewed by Human Rights Watch in three separate interviews. Each described the suffering of this individual while they were held in detention together. They witnessed him in extreme pain, crying all the time, and saw that his leg was very swollen. He recounted to his co-detainees that JATT interrogators had hit him over and over again in the same place on his leg and that he could no longer support his own weight. During their detention, other detainees were required to help the man around, drain pus and infection from his leg, and try to comfort him as much as they could with no medical equipment.

In early December 2007, JATT agents took the man away from the house. About six weeks later he returned. Detainees told Human Rights Watch that he recounted being transported to Mbuya military hospital where his leg was amputated at the knee and then brought to Bombo barracks to recuperate. He was later reportedly released without charge.

Electric Shock

Six detainees detailed three different interrogations where they endured electric shock during questioning at CMI and witnessed other detainees being given electric shock at the same time. [146] Two detainees described their interrogators removing a small machine about the size of a flashlight from a box. The machine was plugged into the wall and it had small green lights on it and would make a shrill sound when turned on. One victim told Human Rights Watch, "They put [the machine] on my head many times and on my back and shoulders. The pain would last for a few seconds each time and it would make you feel paralyzed." [147]

According to one detainee, JATT personnel when talking between themselves, referred to this treatment saying, abadde yetaagamu e kipindi kiri, meaning literally that she needed to be treated in "that other way." [148]

Four detainees said that, JATT and CMI personnel used a metal implement attached to a battery to shock them on the joints during interrogations. One former detainee showed Human Rights Watch researchers large keloid burns on his shoulders that he said were the result of electric shock during his interrogations.

"Invisible torture"

Non-governmental organizations and media outlets have documented the use of "invisible torture" in Uganda, described as "ingenious torture methods that leave no physical marks on victims but are as severe and brutalising." [149] Doctors and social workers at the African Center for Victims of Torture told a reporter in Uganda in 2007 that they had been seeing a number of patients who had been tortured "as a result of what we call invisible torture or systematic torture; infliction of maximum harm leaving no traces behind like scars of bodily bruises." [150]

Human Rights Watch also documented recent instances of "invisible torture" carried out by JATT and CMI agents on detainees who had been held in Kololo. Techniques include forcing detainees to sit in stress positions, rubbing chili pepper into the eyes, nose and mouth, repeatedly pouring jerry cans of water over detainees or forcing them to sit in water for prolonged periods of time.

Former detainees reported that JATT personnel used chili pepper or kamulali rubbed into the eyes as a form of torture that leaves no trace. The red chili pepper would be ground up, mixed with water, and then smeared into the eyes, nose and mouths of detainees. [151]

One detainee told Human Rights Watch:

Asiimwe, also known as Semakula, went out of the room and came back with a small plastic container which had pepper in it. They started stuffing pepper in our eyes and Mucunguzi was holding the upper part of my eye while Semakula held down the lower lid, picked pepper from the container and pushed it into my eyes. I was the last to suffer this so I saw very well what these guys were doing to my fellow detainees. Semakula had wrapped his hand with a polythene paper to avoid direct contact with the pepper in the plastic container as he stuffed it in our eyes. The pain was too much and at this point I could not see anything. Then they resumed the beating and I cannot tell now who was beating who. [152]

Detainees recounted to Human Rights Watch being forced into physically demanding "stress positions" while being interrogated. Some were forced to hold a large rock above their heads for long periods of time, and would be beaten if they allowed the rock to fall to the ground. [153]   According to one man, "they would make us do push ups and beat us while we did them. Or make us do push ups on our knuckles and beat us. Then, they would make us sit with our legs stretched wide apart." [154]

One former detainee told Human Rights Watch that JATT personnel placed the legs of a chair on his toes and then stood on the chair for the duration of the interrogation. He later lost the nails of those toes due to the injury sustained. [155] Two recounted having glass soda bottles forced into their mouths.

Another technique involved striking detainees once very hard to knock the breath out of them. One former detainee described this practice as being "hit very hard on the back with the flat of a palm. It felt like my heart would burst out of my chest. They called that 'stamping.'" [156]

In one instance described to Human Rights Watch, detainees were stripped naked and jerry cans of water were poured over them for several hours. One of the detainees, who had pre-existing health problems, was left in a tub of water overnight.[157]

Forced Confessions

Many former detainees at Kololo alleged that they had been forced to admit crimes or sign statements under duress, while being beaten, or by threat of physical violence.

"They even had a system for how it worked," one former female detainee who had been arrested in Hoima and taken to Kololo told Human Rights Watch,

One pointed a gun at me and said that I was an ADF rebel. He asked me which part of the bush I had been in. The one pointing the gun at me made me lie down on the floor of the sitting room. One stepped on my head and another was beating me and stepping on my ankles and slapping me around the ears. They kept stepping on my head and beating me over and over again in the knees and ankles. One would ask me questions and another one would write down what he said, even if I didn't answer the questions, one man told the other man what to write for my answers.[158]

Detainees reported that they were sometimes suffocated for short periods of time while being questioned. In one case, JATT agents tied a cloth around a detainee's nose and mouth so she couldn't speak and had trouble breathing. "After they beat me for two or three hours, I tried to communicate to them that I would talk," she said. "They took the cloth off and I said, 'What should I say?' My body was swelling, everything hurt. I was lying on a wood parquet floor of the house. When I said I would agree to whatever they wanted me to say, they left me alone." [159]

Other detainees were threatened with physical violence if they didn't sign statements prepared by JATT agents. "The man called Mwesigwa and others told him I wouldn't sign. He said, I give you three minutes to sign or we will beat you again. So, I was tired of beatings and I agreed to sign." [160]

In some instances, detainees were eventually brought to a police station or the Criminal Investigations Division where their cases were officially processed. Statements signed under duress while at JATT or CMI would appear in their files at that time. One detainee told Human Rights Watch,

The policeman asked us how long we had been in the safehouse, and I said from September 29, 2007 to February, 2008. He said to me, I arrested you today. You are charged with terrorism. I said that I wanted to make my statement and deny the charges, but he said I didn't have to do anything because they already had my statement from before. I told him that we had been forced to sign those and that they weren't real. He said no.[161]

Uganda's Responsibility to Investigate Allegations of Torture

Uganda is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) [162] and the 1981 African Charter on Human and People's Rights, [163] both of which set out prohibitions on arbitrary detention and the use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Uganda is also a party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture), which obliges states to prohibit and take appropriate action to prevent and sanction acts of torture, and also acts of inhuman and degrading treatment. [164]

Many of the cases documented in this report rise to the level of torture, in that they involved the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering for the purpose of obtaining a confession or extracting information, or punishing the victim for his or her own or a relative's perceived wrongdoing.

The Convention against Torture requires states to undertake a prompt and impartial investigation wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed. [165] Further, the UN Principles on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (2001) provides that "[e]ven in the absence of an express complaint, an investigation should be undertaken if there are other reasons to believe that torture or ill-treatment might have occurred." [166]

Given the long history of allegations of detention and torture at the Kololo facility, impartial investigations should be immediately undertaken.

Collective Punishment

Human Rights Watch spoke to several women who were unlawfully detained and ill-treated by JATT to compel them to provide information on their husbands or other male relatives with alleged ADF involvement. Such "collective punishment"-punishing someone as a means of harming a third party-compounds the otherwise unlawful treatment meted out.

A woman whose husband had spent time in Kololo in JATT detention years earlier told Human Rights Watch that afterwards he had become mentally unwell and never rejoined the family. In early 2007, armed JATT agents came to her place of business and arrested her. Although she had not seen her husband in years, JATT agents repeatedly asked about his whereabouts. When she said she did not know, she was put into a car and taken to the JATT offices in Kololo. After being searched, she was brought before then-director of counter-terrorism, Dominic Twesigomwe, who also asked her about the whereabouts of her husband. She said she didn't know where he was. According to the woman:

They got annoyed when I said I didn't know where my husband was and they started beating me. They slapped me in the head many times. I started to lose awareness of what was happening because they kept hitting me all over. It seemed like it lasted over one hour. [167]

The woman was locked for six months in a small room on the compound of the JATT offices, where she was given a bucket to use as a toilet. Several men questioned her almost daily about the whereabouts of her husband. She was eventually brought to the police station and charged with treason. After spending one month in Luzira maximum security prison, she was released on bail. [168]

Another woman told Human Rights Watch of similar treatment by JATT agents in 2006. Her husband had been suspected of ADF involvement, but had fled Uganda and died in exile in Nairobi. She was arrested in 2006, brought to JATT and interrogated about her husband's whereabouts. She describes her treatment:  

They removed my veil. They brought a piece of cloth and tied it around my mouth and nose and ears very tightly. One of them got a glass soda bottle and began hitting me with it. And others were kicking and slapping me on both my ears at the same time, they were slamming my head. One man hit me with a cable on the back and it cut through me. [169]

Another woman who spent four months in JATT told Human Rights Watch that she was questioned about the whereabouts of her brother who had been suspected of ADF involvement and had previously been arrested by the military. [170]

Some former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported seeing very small children who were being held along with their mothers for months inside the Kololo compound. At one point in January 2008, a detainee saw three children she believed to be under two years old.[171] 

Theft of Money and Personal Items

Theft during searches and after arrest was a common occurrence, according to detainees. Items of value were taken and not returned to the detainees, even in instances where they were released without charge. One detainee was brought to the JATT offices in Kololo and was searched by a male JATT employee who did not identify himself. He found 80,000 shillings (37 USD) and a telephone in the detainee's pockets. He kept both the money and the telephone. Later, the detainee was brought to her home by three JATT personnel where they conducted a search. "They didn't find anything, except our money. We had 1.2million shillings (610 USD) in the house and they took it with them. They had a paper with them and they wrote down that they found 300,000 Shillings (150 USD) but they took much more than that. There was a police man there and he said we must report all the money, but the men from JATT said no." [172]  

In another instance, a detainee's car was impounded by JATT personnel after his arrest. Once he was released without charge, he was told that he had to pay 2.5 million shillings (1160 USD) to have the car returned to him. He did so and the car was returned. [173]

One detainee told Human Rights Watch that JATT personnel gave her money back upon her release. "They said that they wanted to help me so I should help them. They gave me a phone number to call if my husband, who they were looking for, came home. Then they gave me 25,000 Shillings and told me to go back home. They had stolen 60,000 shillings when they searched the house so they were just giving me back part of what they stole."[174]

Incommunicado Detention

Incommunicado detention is generally understood as a situation of detention in which an individual is denied access to family members, an attorney, or an independent physician. Incommunicado detention is contrary to general principles of international human rights law, specifically the right to communicate with legal counsel, to be free from arbitrary interference with family correspondence, and to be treated humanely. [175]    

According to the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, "[a]n untried prisoner shall be allowed to inform immediately his family of his detention and shall be given all reasonable facilities for communicating  with his family and friends, and for receiving visits from them," subject to reasonable security restrictions. [176]

The right of all persons accused of a crime to the assistance of a lawyer is a fundamental procedural guarantee. Article 14 of the ICCPR states that everyone charged with a criminal offense has the right "to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing" or to be assigned free legal assistance if necessary. The Human Rights Committee has considered these provisions applicable to periods before trial, including the period in police custody. [177] The UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers provides that "all arrested, detained or imprisoned persons shall be provided with adequate opportunities, time and facilities to be visited by and to communicate and consult with a lawyer, without delay, interception or censorship and in full confidentiality. Such consultations may be within sight, but not within the hearing, of law enforcement officials." [178]

United Nations human rights bodies have found that incommunicado detention can give rise to serious human rights violations and should be prohibited. [179] The UN Commission on Human Rights has repeatedly reaffirmed this position, most recently in a 2003 resolution, holding the view that "prolonged incommunicado detention may facilitate the perpetration of torture and can in itself constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture." [180]

Former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch held in Kololo anywhere from one week to more than 11 months without charge, said detention was always incommunicado. The one exception among those interviewed by Human Rights Watch occurred in December 2008, when religious leader Sheikh Murshid Mwemba was permitted access to a detainee. [181]

Not one detainee interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported being permitted to contact family members. Human Rights Watch also spoke with family members who had looked in police jails for a missing relative, only to learn informally from others in the community or recently released detainees that the person was in Kololo. [182]

In one instance, a man who had spent five months in Kololo before being charged with terrorism and imprisoned in Luzira prison asked Human Rights Watch to inform his relatives of his whereabouts. It had been a year since his arrest, and he had no news of his wife or children. He didn't know where they were or if they were being cared for. When Human Rights Watch contacted the family members, they said they had no idea what had happened to him and that they believed he had been killed. [183]

None of the detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch were granted permission to speak with lawyers during their detention in Kololo. Many detainees did not know they had the right to demand a lawyer from the moment of their arrest. However, even in one case where Human Rights Watch knows a detainee was informed of this right he was prevented from doing so. In this instance, a representative of an embassy conducted a consular visit to a dual national held in the Kololo compound. [184] Though the dual national was handed a list of lawyers by the embassy representative, it was immediately taken from him by JATT agents when the representative departed. [185]