{UAH} UNITED STATES REPORT ON VIOLENCE IN UGANDA

Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1985

UGANDA

 

 

Elements of the Ugandan National Liberation Army (UNLA) , led

by senior military officers primarily from the Acholi ethnic

group, overthrew the government of President A. Milton Obote

on July 27, 1985. An Interim Military Government (IMG) headed

by a Military Council was installed with General Tito Okello

Lutwa, formerly Chief of the Defense Forces, as Head of State

and Military Council chairman. Immediately after assuming

power, the Military Council began appointing a broad-based

civilian cabinet, comprising all major ethnic groups as well

as representatives of the four political parties which had

contested the disputed 1980 election. The Council

subsequently included members of four insurgent groups, but

not Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army /Movement

(NRA/NRM) , which is dominated by Bantus, in particular the

Banyankole. Museveni's NRM/NRA forces continued hostilities

against the interim Government but also agreed to enter into

peace talks with the IMG in Nairobi under the chairmanship of

Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi . The talks culminated in a

peace accord signed on December 17, in Nairobi between Okello

and Museveni, who agreed to join the Government as vice

chairman of the Military Council. By early 1986, the terms of

the Accord had not been implemented, and further fighting took

place. As of late January, the NRA appeared to have taken

control of the capital.

 

When Idi Amin fled Uganda in 1979, he left behind a devastated

economy. Uganda has great agricultural potential with its

fertile soil and regular rainfall and also has substantial

mineral deposits. But the economy has continued to decline

under the impact of civil war and social upheaval entailing

the dislocation of thousands of people. The Obote government,

with the assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),

introduced ambitious economic reform measures in 1981, with

some initial success, but abandoned the IMF program in 1983

due to the deteriorating security situation. Since then, the

inflation rate has soared from 25 to 30 percent a year in 1983

to an estimated 175 percent in 1985. The new Government's

economic program had not crystallized by the end of 1985 as

first priority was given to ending the civil war.

 

Human rights issues have played a major role in Uganda's

turbulent 23-year post independence history. The depredations

of the Amin years are well-known and well documented. Chaos

and widespread human rights violations continued during the

1979-80 interim governments. After initial promise, the

1980-85 Obote government was widely discredited by the time it

fell because of its unwillingness, or inability, to halt or

prevent large-scale violations of human rights, particularly

perpetrated by ill-disciplined soldiers during military

operations against the NRA, as well as unrestrained activities

of civilian intelligence, security, and ruling-party agents.

Various guerrilla groups bent on the violent overthrow of the

Obote government also contributed to human rights violations

through the use of both indiscriminate and selective

terrorism. A special Amnesty International Report released in

June 1985, indicated that the government security forces had

been involved in mass detentions, routine torture, widespread

abductions, and frequent killings of prisoners.

 

Following the coup respect for rule of law improved

temporarily, e.g. , most political detainees were released in

the first 2 weeks. But members of the UNLA, augmented by

 

the four other ill-disciplined fighting forces (not including

NRA) , and untrained new recruits, were soon implicated in rape

and indiscriminate killing of civilians as well as looting of

civilian and government properties. The worst, documented

human rights violations took place in September-October in the

Luwero triangle, a region north and northwest of the capital

Kampala, which has been the principal area of

government- insurgent conflict since 1981. While the IMG

undertook a concerted public effort to punish offenders, its

ability to control its soldiers and allied fighting forces

still remained in doubt at the end of 1985. Underlying the

civil strife is a profound tension among the three main ethnic

groups: Bantu, Nilotic, and Nilo-Hamitic .

 

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

 

Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including

Freedom From:

 

a. Political Killing

 

While it often was difficult to distinguish between victims of

war and of political murder, there continued to be clear

evidence of extralegal killings in Uganda in 1985, both before

and after the July coup. Most of the killings were of

villagers who died during and after military engagements

between the government forces and the National Resistance Army

(NRA) and other fighting forces. During 1985, the NRA, which

had hitherto been based in the Luwero triangle, made a series

of attacks to the west, culminating in a splitting of the NRA

into two forces, one remaining in the triangle and the other

in the foothills of the Ruwenzori mountains of western

Uganda. As the NRA moved through territory, the Uganda

Liberation Army (UNLA) would typically follow and loot the

town, sometimes killing suspected NRA sympathizers.

 

A number of killings were reported to have been committed by

members of the youth wing of Obote's ruling party, the Uganda

People Congress (UPC). In March and April 1985, armed youth

reportedly entered villages where weddings were taking place

and, using grenades and automatic weapons, killed a number of

the celebrants. At least two incidents of this nature took

place in each of which a minimum of 10 people were killed and

over 30 wounded.

 

There were also credible reports of a number of killings at

military detention centers, military barracks, and civilian

detention centers carried out by civilian security agents

responsible directly to the Minister of State in the office of

the President. In one incident in May, villagers identified a

UNLA military truck which dropped off a load of more than a

dozen mutilated bodies near Kampala. Reliable sources said

the bodies had come from Makyndye Barracks in Kampala, where

many extralegal detentions were known to occur.

 

After the July 27 coup, further evidence of political killings

during the Obote regime came to light. Among the most

publicized were two mass burials of anonymous victims in the

Luwero triangle. Conducted by senior IMG officials and

participated in by ordinary citizens, the ceremonies involved

the internment of hundreds of persons. Responsibility for the

killings could not be definitely established, although general

opinion was that they had been committed by agents of the

Obote government .

 

Beginning in September there were new reports of killings,

principally in the Luwero triangle area. The pattern was one

of indiscriminate killing of civilians by soldiers of the UNLA

as augmented by other fighting groups, principally the Uganda

National Rescue Front (UNRF) and the Former Ugandan National

Army (FUNA) .

 

On October 5, members of the IMG, including Minister of

Internal Affairs and leader of the Democratic Party (DP) Paul

Ssemogerere and Major General Issac Lumago, leader of FUNA,

toured the capital of Luwero district which had recently been

the scene of a UNLA/NRA confrontation. The team found

evidence of indiscriminate killing by members of the

government forces, but no disciplinary action was taken.

 

Not all extralegal killings in Uganda during 1985 can be

attributed to government forces. In the wake of the change of

governinent, a number of local party officials and government

appointees of the UPC were murdered, presumably out of revenge

by citizens enraged at what was perceived to be an arrogation

and abuse of power during the Obote era by these officials.

There have also been reports that the principal dissident

group, the NRA, has executed civilians whom it suspected of

being government informers. There was one credible report

that in 1984 NRA exterminated the population of a village in

the Luwero triangle in retribution for a villager's betrayal

of the whereabouts of an NRA detachment.

 

b. Disappearance

 

Reports of disappearance through abduction in 1985 were common

and probably reached into the hundreds of cases. However, the

number of disappearances dropped off significantly after the

fall of the Obote government. The reasons for disppearances

range from political thuggery to ransom, which was possibly

the most common motive. Since the coup, each of the fighting

groups, including government forces as well as those allied

with the Government and the NRA, has been accused of

responsibility for disappearances.

 

The most notable disappearance that occurred during 1985 was

that of Sebastian Ssebugwawo, a member of Parliament for the

opposition Democratic Party. Ssebugwawo disappeared in late

May 1985 after an altercation with a military officer. It is

presumed that Ssebugwawo was killed, but his body was never

recovered, and the Obote government's investigation was

inconclusive. Members of Ssebugwawo ' s party accused the Obote

government of conducting an investigation that was at best pro

forma. The postcoup government has arrested two members of

the military, a captain and a sergeant, who were allegedly

involved in the abduction and presumed murder of Ssebugwawo.

 

c. Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or

Punishment

 

Torture and inhuman treatment are not sanctioned by Ugandan

law, but for many years there have been credible reports of

extreme forms of torture taking place at detention centers,

particularly military barracks, where political prisoners were

often held illegally. The situation was extensively

documented in Amnesty International's June 1985 special report

on the state of human rights in Uganda in which Amnesty

asserted that it had "received a detailed account from someone

who claims to have been tortured in a military barracks as

 

recently as February 1985." A favored method of torture,

often resulting in death, was to tie a victim down, sometimes

in the presence of other prisoners, with a burning tire

suspended above. The molten rubber drips onto the victim's

face and body. Other reported means of torture and degrading

treatment included rape, beatings, bayonetting, and

castration.

 

All fighting groups, including government forces and the NRA,

have been accused of employing torture. The numbers of

persons physically abused are estimated in the thousands

during 1985, with the rate probably dropping off somewhat

after the ousting of the Obote government and the disbandment

of the National Security Agency, allegedly a frequent user of

torture. Conditions in detention centers, which had been

greatly increased in number to handle the demand, were poor.

Bodies were left after death (from beatings, starvation,

illness, etc.). Sanitation and medical assistance were

nonexistent. On August 10, over 1,200 political detainees

were given their freedom in a public ceremony presided over by

General Okello. Some of these Obote era detainees were in

such poor physical condition that they were taken immediately

from prison to the hospital. According to reliable reports,

the NRA since the coup has instituted its own detention

centers for persons it finds objectionable and which are

outside the jurisdiction of Ugandan law (the numbers of such

persons held by the NRA are unknown, but indications are they

are in the hundreds) . NRA detention policies reportedly have

been based on ethnic and political considerations.

 

The year 1985 saw the continuation of reports both before and

after the coup, that rape of women and forced concubinage by

government forces occured, with instances of females under 12

among the victims.

 

d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile

 

A number of persons were subject to arbitrary detention, both

legal and extralegal, during the first part of 1985. Legal

detentions are accomplished under the Detention and Security

Act of 1966, although this law has often been applied

capriciously and was used during the Obote period against the

opposition Democratic Party and suspected members of the NRA

and other antigovernment groups. Extralegal detentions were

most often performed by the military and civilian security

agencies, such as the National Security Agency. In the case

of military detentions, the victims were usually either

detained on suspicion of being guerrilla sympathizers or,

perhaps more commonly, were simply chosen as targets of ransom

demands .

 

In August and September 1985, the IMG released a total of

1,400 Obote-era detainees. According to the Government, at

the end of 1985, there were approximately 150 uncharged

suspects in custody, primarily members of the disbanded

National Security Agency, all of whom were accused of criminal

activities. The IMG has issued one detention order since the

coup, that for Cris Rwakasiisi, Minister of State in the

Office of the President under Obote and responsible for

overseeing National Security Agency operations. The IMG

apprehended in 1985 over 200 officers and enlisted men caught

looting or committing other crimes against civilians. Some

were turned over to civil authorities for prosecution, and

others were to be tried by courts martial. In addition, there

 

were an unknown number being held extralegally by government

forces, four allied fighting groups, and the NRA (in western

and southwestern portions of the country controlled by the

NRA) .

 

Since the coup, the IMG has invited all Ugandans living in

exile to return home. Some prominent Ugandans took advantage

of the IMG's invitation to return, notably former President

Godfrey Binaisa. The principal impediments to Ugandans

returning appeared to be security and economic conditions

within Uganda, rather than government policy. While the IMG

made greater efforts to see that those exiled in Sudan and

Zaire returned, it stated that the Banyarwanda (forced earlier

into Rwanda) were also included in this appeal.

 

The Government, both before and since the coup, has not had a

policy of forced or compulsory labor. However, individual

government soldiers, primarily in the Luwero triangle, have

reportedly forced women into concubinage and required them to

raise crops, do household work, etc. Under Obote, especially

in the north, children were abducted by military personnel and

kept as personal servants.

 

e. Denial of Fair Public Trial

 

The Ugandan judicial system contains procedural safeguards

modeled after British law, including the granting of bail and

appeals to higher courts. The legal profession is generally

respected. However, there have been many inequities in the

working of the judicial system due to government pressures, to

the general disorganization of the courts and the blurring of

judicial jurisdiction during the civil war, and to alleged

corruption among some members of the judiciary, e.g., the

Government's use of extralegal and legal detention during the

Obote period effectively prevented many individuals from

receiving a fair trial. Moreover, during the Obcte period,

the government reportedly engaged in the harassment of

attorneys, including detention of some lawyers suspected of

being politically opposed to the government or the ruling UPC

party. There were reports that compliant judges during the

Obote period were assigned to politically sensitive cases out

of normal rotation.

 

The IMG signaled its intention to restore the independence and

impartiality of the judicial system by appointing a

well-respected non-Ugandan to the position of Chief Justice.

It had also initiated a reorganization of the judicial

administrative system by the end of 1985.

 

There are no special courts for political or security cases.

During the Obote period, members of the military and security

forces enjoyed a near total immunity from civilian judicial

authority, despite the formation of a legal unit within the

UNLA in December 1984 for the purpose of carrying out

courts-martial of soldiers accused of crimes. The IMG

announced its intention in October to prosecute members of the

military under the terms of the Military Act of 1966. The IMG

also apprehended over 200 officers and enlisted men who were

caught looting or committing other crimes.

 

f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or

Correspondence

 

Undisciplined elements of both the Obote and IMG regimes

interfered with privacy and family through harassment of the

 

populace, including physical abuse, and large-scale looting.

In the first half of 1985 such activities were confined

principally to the areas of armed conflict, i.e., the Luwero

triangle and areas of western Uganda. During and immediately

after the July 27 coup, looting, hijacking of private

vehicles, and armed robbery continued in Kampala and in other

disturbed areas. Without sufficient pay, food, housing, or

clothing, the soldiers from disparate government forces turned

to robbing citizens in the streets, often at roadblocks as

well as in their homes. Elements of the military, often in

league with civilians, also mounted larger-scale looting

expeditions to strip entire households of furnishings in

Kampala and other areas, particularly where military

operations were taking place. Lira, the major city in Obote's

home region of Lango, was also badly looted, reportedly by

members of UNLA and associated paramilitary groups.

 

There was no indication that either the Obote regime or the

IMG has interfered with correspondence.

 

Section 2 Respect for Civil Rights Including:

 

a. Freedom of Speech and Press

 

Despite the imposition of a military government, there is

extensive public debate over the issues of the day, including

in the press. Ugandan journalists indicate that freedom of

the press has increased since the coup, and this was reflected

in the coverage of internal events including reporting of

human rights violations. Nevertheless, on January 2, 1986,

the IMG announced the formation of a Press Security Committee

whose ostensible purpose is to prevent sensational press

reporting.

 

In early October, the Ugandan press began to report atrocities

including indiscriminate killing and rape by government forces

in the Luwero triangle. The IMG responded by assembling a

high-level team of government officials and a pool of Ugandan

journalists to make a trip into the disturbed area to

investigate the charges. The visit was covered extensively by

government television as well as independent news media.

 

During the Obote period there was no official censorship, but

there was considerable pressure on journalists to toe the

government line, and a number of journalists were detained,

usually under the Detention Act, for having written stories

critical of the government and the ruling UPC party. About 10

journalists were detained in the 1984-85 period. Following

the coup, the IMG has not interfered with the operation of the

press, except for the detention of one Ugandan journalist, who

was released uncharged and unharmed after 3 weeks. Foreign

journalists, including some who could not obtain visas during

the Obote period, have been able to enter Uganda and have had

access to the new leaders .

 

The Obote government banned one magazine in March, apparently

for a critical article. Otherwise, international

publications — often highly critical of the Obote as well as

current Government — were readily available for sale in Uganda

in 1985.

 

Prior to the coup in early 1985, the citizenship of a

prominent Ugandan academic, Mahmood Mamdani, was revoked.

Mamdani, who is of Asian heritage, claimed the revocation was

 

illegal. It is widely believed that this action was taken

because Mamdani had criticized the Minister of State in the

President's office.

 

b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

 

The right of assembly and association in Uganda is generally

respected, but permits for public gatherings must be obtained

from police authorities who have the right to deny the permit

in the interest of public safety. During the Obote period,

nonpolitical events and national celebrations were often given

strong government party overtones. In the early campaign for

the scheduled 1985 elections, which were subsequently

cancelled, a number of opposition political rallies were

subject to harassment by UPC youth. In some instances,

rallies were canceled by security authorities ostensibly

because of "security problems." Since the coup, political

activities have been suspended, but public gatherings have

been permitted. Professional associations of doctors,

attorneys, engineers, and accountants operate without

hindrance, as do international associations such as the Rotary

Club, Lions, YMCA, and YWCA.

 

Under the Obote government, trade unionism remained limited

and subject to government party influence. UPC "workers'

councils" continued attempts to supplant traditional trade

unions. Trade unionists reported that before the coup they

were under government pressure to affiliate themselves with

the Communist-dominated World Federation of Trade Unions.

After the coup, unions were free to associate with any

international labor organization.

 

c. Freedom of Religion

 

There is no state religion in Uganda. Islam, Christianity,

and African traditional religions are freely practiced.

Conversion between religions is not obstructed. There is no

government control of religious publications, even those with

an antigovernment slant. Foreign missionaries and other

religious figures are welcome in Uganda. Religious leaders

frequently speak out publicly on topics relating to their

followers' welfare, addressing in particular human rights,

security, and political issues. The opinions of religious

leaders carry great weight in public discourse.

 

The UPC is to some extent identified with the Church of Uganda

(Anglican) while the Democratic Party is identified with Roman

Catholicism. However, followers of various religions are

found in both parties.

 

d. Freedom of Movement within the Country, Foreign

Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation

 

In theory, Ugandans are free to move, reside, and choose their

place of work within the country. In practice, however,

travel within the country in 1985 was difficult in view of

sporadic guerrilla attacks, UNLA operations, and by October a

de facto partition of western and southwestern Uganda, which

were under NRA control, from the rest of the country. At

year's end, a short-lived ceasefire had increased freedom of

movement slightly. There are no restrictions which prevent

Ugandans from emigrating.

 

Perhaps as many as 500,000 persons have been displaced by

conflict within Uganda since 1980. Many have sought sanctuary

in neighboring states. The great majority of these displaced

persons and refugees fled to eastern Zaire and southern Sudan

in the aftermath of the 1979 liberation war and UNLA excesses

in repulsing a 1980 guerrilla attack in the west Nile region.

At its peak, the numbers of Ugandans in Zaire and Sudan

totaled approximately 150,000. During the first half of 1985

over 20,000 of these people returned to Uganda with the help

of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Since

the coup, a large number of persons living in southern Sudan

have returned spontaneously to Uganda, several thousand of

whom were young men of military age who have come back to

serve in government fighting forces.

 

Approximately 40,000 Banyarwanda fled Uganda to Rwanda in

1982-83 as a result of quasi-official harassment of this

minority group. The majority were Ugandan citizens, but some

were Rwandese nationals. Although the Obote government

publicly invited these persons to return to Uganda as part of

its stated policy of reconcilation and no revenge, it was

reluctant to support a full-scale repatriation of the

Banyarwanda, including those with valid legal claims to

Ugandan nationality. Possibly 25,000 Banyarwanda have

spontaneously repatriated themselves since the coup, mainly

settling in southwestern Uganda, an area under NRA control.

There were credible reports that some Banyarwanda returnees

had been recruited into NRA forces. At the end of 1985, an

estimated 200,000 persons out of Uganda's population of 15

million still lived abroad.

 

The IMG has appealed to the international community for

assistance in resettlement of displaced persons, but the

security situation during most of 1985 prevented

implementation of such efforts.

 

Given the poor security and economic situation, there were few

non-Ugandans seeking refuge in Uganda. There were no reported

incidents of Uganda forcibly repatriating foreign refugees in

1985.

 

Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens

to Change Their Government

 

Internal rivalry led a portion of the Uganda National

Liberation Army (UNLA) leadership — dominated by members of the

Acholi ethnic group — to seize control of the government in

July 1985 and to establish an Interm Military Government

(IMG), headed by a Military Council. The IMG suspended

political activity but it did not disband political parties.

The IMG recruited into the Military Council and civilian

Cabinet a cross section of ethnic, political, and religious

personalities to form a relatively broad based government,

excluding, however, supporters of Museveni's NRA. Four months

of negotiations, hosted by President Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya,

ceune close to bringing the NRM into the Council, but these

arrangements collapsed in early 1986.

 

President Obote and the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) ruled

Uganda for nearly 13 of its 23 years as an independent nation

(1962-71, and 1980-85). During these periods, Uganda

maintained the structure of a parliamentary democracy, with

elections, universal suffrage, legal opposition parties, and a

free press. The legitimacy of this democracy was called in

 

question under the first Obote government by postponement of

elections after 1962. There was a widespread belief that the

Obote government used its power to manipulate the 1980 general

elections. Democratic structures also were weakened by the

second Obote administration's extralegal actions, e.g. through

arbitrary arrest of suspected political opponents and by the

politicization of the armed forces and the exacerbation of

ethnic divisions.

 

At least five guerrilla groups of various sizes operated in

Uganda during the period 1981-85. Each had an ethnic base.

In additional to Museveni's National Resistance Movement and

Army (NRM/NRA) , dominated by the Banyankole, there were: the

Federal Democratic Union of Uganda (FEDEMU), the Uganda

Freedom Movement (UFM) , the Uganda National Rescue Front

(UNRF) and the Former Ugandan National Army (FUNA) . The

majority of the members of the first two groups — often led by

former government soldiers but composed primarily of ethnic

Bantu civilians turned guerrillas — were inside Uganda at the

time of the coup. Members of the second two groups — largely

led by and made up of ethnic Nilotics and ethnic Sudanics who

had served in the armed forces during the 1960 's and

1970s — were mostly in exile in Sudan and Zaire at the time of

the coup.

 

Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and

 

Nongovernmental Investigations of Alleged Violations

of Human Rights

 

The Obote government was highly sensitive to any foreign

criticism of Uganda's human rights record and publicly

disputed Western reports of human rights violations in Uganda,

including the highly critical June 1985 Amnesty International

special report on the status of human rights in Uganda. The

Obote government invited representatives of Amnesty

International to visit Uganda's detention centers but the trip

did not materialize because of the July 27 coup. Amnesty

International in its 1985 Report (covering 1984) focused its

concern on the detention without trial of hundreds of alleged

political opponents of the Obote government. Freedom House

rated Uganda "partly free."

 

One of the first acts of the Interim Military Government was

to appoint as Minister of Internal Affairs, Paul K.

Ssemogerere, leader of the opposition Democratic Party and

long-time critic of the Obote regime's stand on human rights

practices. While there continued to be serious human rights

violations in Uganda due to the IMG's inability to control its

troops and associated forces, the IMG made a credible effort

to confront and report these incidents.

 

The largest of the nongovernment organizations in Uganda, the

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), continued its

programs of prison visits to both IMG and NRA controlled

facilities, tracing, family reunification, and emergency

assistance in disturbed areas. The ICRC has not been able,

however, to gain permission to enter military barracks where

detainees are held. The Uganda Red Cross continued to be very

much in the forefront of relief efforts and other public

service work and has been tasked with helping to resettle

Banyarwanda returnees at such time as that program can

commence. Other nongovernmental organizations working in

Uganda include the League of Red Cross Societies, Oxford

Famine Relief, Save the Children Fund, Doctors without

 

Borders, the German Emergency Doctors, as well as many foreign

religious organizations.

 

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL SITUATION

 

Uganda's estimated population of 14.7 million is growing at

the annual rate of 3 . 1 percent, according to the World Bank.

Gross national product per capita in 1983, the last year for

which figures are available, was $220 and has probably dropped

since then due to the disruption of the economy by civil

strife.

 

In the modern sector there are constraints on the economy,

notably a government monopoly on purchasing key agricultural

crops for export, but both the Obote and current Governments

have generally encouraged a free market economy. Coffee

exports are the source of over 90 percent of Uganda's foreign

exchange earnings. By November, however, much of the

processing of the coffee crop was disrupted because of the

civil war. This situation seriously affected Uganda's ability

to pay for essential imports, particularly petroleum

products. Nevertheless, Uganda has great economic potential

with important agricultural assets, including fertile soils,

regular rainfall, substantial deposit of minerals such as tin,

copper, and cobalt, a tradition of productive local

enterprise, and facilities such as a road network and

hydroelectric power. The Obote government, with IMF

assistance, introduced ambitious economic reform measures

starting in 1981 but later abandoned these measures as the

overall security situation worsened, and inflation soared to a

projected rate of 175 percent by late 1985. Following the

coup, the IMG began talks with the IMF with a view toward

eventually reinstituting a reform program.

 

Life expectancy at birth is 49.1 years. The health

infrastructure, which was devastated during the 1970 's,

continued to be one of the government's top priorities in

1985. Infant mortality is one index of the breakdown in

health care. According to UNICEF, one village near Kampala

experienced an infant mortality rate of 32 deaths per 1,000

live births in the late 1960 's; this had risen to over 90 in

1984. In 1985, the national infant mortality rate was 112.8

per 1,000 live births, up from 92.6 in 1984, according to

World Bank figures.

 

Both the Obote and present Governments have made

rehabilitation of the educational infrastructure,

internationally renowned in the 1960 's and a notable casualty

of the Amin period, a top priority, together with medical

services. However, there were credible reports that funds

earmarked for education in the Obote government were diverted

by personal and government party corruption. What educational

renewal has taken place in the past 5 years has resulted from

foreign assistance and from many self-help groups formed by

parents, teachers, religious, and other civic groups which

have provided much of the material and labor to rehabilitate

schools. In 1982, a relatively peaceful year, the primary

school enrollment ratio was 68 percent of the eligible

children (79 percent for males, 57 percent for females). The

adult literacy rate in 1980 was 52 percent (65 percent for

males, 40 percent for females).

 

Minimum age for employment is 12 years except on light work

which the Minister of Labor may exempt by statutory order. In

 

addition, there are restrictions for employing persons under

16 years old in mining and at night — apprenticeships

exempted. The minimum wage is that of the lowest paid person

employed by the Kampala City Council, currently about $14 per

month. 00). Medical care is to be provided by employers.

 

Women are not legally discriminated against or officially

restricted from education or employment. However, their

access to education has been declining, according to United

Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, as the

educational system deteriorates and the economy declines.

Families withdraw daughters rather than sons from school in

times of economic hardship. At the same time, women have been

active in politics at the grass roots level and have held

several senior positions in national parties as well as in

government. There were no women of cabinet-level rank in the

IMG government .

 

The country's boundaries cut across contiguous tribal areas

and group together mutually distrustful ethnic groups.

Historical animosities between ethnic groups have been

exacerbated by Uganda's political problems and, in particular,

by the ruination of the country's economic and political

infrastructure during the Amin years, from which the country

has not recovered. Particularly damaging was the 1972

expulsion of an estimated 70,000 persons of Asian heritage who

comprised the backbone of Uganda's entrepreneurial and skilled

trade resources. The cumulative result of Uganda's long-term

ethnic civil conflict has led to a breakdown of the country's

social fabric. Two ethnic groups commonly are subject to

discrimination in delivery of the government's economic and

social services. These are the Banyarwanda and Karamajong.

As noted above, the Banyarwanda have suffered expulsion from

and displacement within Uganda. The Karamajong, who live in

northeastern Uganda, have had indiscriminate military action

directed against them in reprisal for their violent cattle

raiding.

EM         -> {   Gap   at   46  } – {Allan Barigye is a Rwandan predator}

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"