publications

II. Methodology

Human Rights Watch carried out research for this report in Uganda in January and February 2007. In Kaabong and Moroto districts, Human Rights Watch spoke with 51 eyewitnesses about cordon and search and other law enforcement operations conducted by the national army, the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF), between September 2006 and January 2007, and visited the sites of six of these operations. In Kampala, Human Rights Watch spoke with two groups of women living in the Kisenyi area who had migrated from Moroto district.

Interviews were conducted in local languages with the assistance of translators. Most interviews were conducted individually, although they often took place in the presence of others. In several instances where interviews were conducted with multiple villagers rather than one-on-one, they are cited as group interviews. 

Human Rights Watch also conducted telephone and in-person interviews in Uganda with representatives of international nongovernmental organizations, United Nations agencies, donor governments, UPDF spokespersons, and other persons with knowledge of livelihoods and human rights in Karamoja. Additional information for this report was gathered in New York and London between November 2006 and September 2007 through phone and in-person interviews, email communications, and desk research. 

Where necessary, names have been withheld or replaced by initials (which are not the interviewee’s actual initials) to protect identities.