Uganda: Torture Committee Confirms HRW Findings

In its annual meeting, the U.N. Committee Against Torture relied heavily on testimony gathered by Human Rights Watch in forming its findings and recommendations on Uganda. In conjunction with the Uganda-based Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Human Rights Watch submitted a 14-page briefing to the Committee detailing the torture of political opponents, alleged rebels and criminal suspects by Ugandan military intelligence agents, police and security forces. Human Rights Watch found that detainees have been held indefinitely in unofficial places of detention called "safe houses" where they are tortured. The Committee called on the government of Uganda to end impunity for violators of human rights and urged it to abolish "safe houses." Separately, feeling the pressure of the international community and following direct intervention by Human Rights Watch, the Ugandan government released on bail two opposition parliamentarians whom it had arrested on politically motivated charges.