[Ugnet] Human Rights Watch Gives Kenya Mixed Review, Slams Uganda

"The Ugandan government is continuing to support armed groups in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Human Rights Watch. This support for proxy forces inside the DRC is in part intended to protect Uganda's border region but also "to ensure continued control over the lucrative trade in natural resources from the DRC, particularly gold," the report says." Beloved ..and you wander as to why Tutsi refugges are flooding into Uganda...Visionaries have clearly noted that Museveni is yet to see the Mother of All crises in Uganda..let him continue with his Militaristic NRM policies.

THE KENYAN government receives a mixed evaluation in the latest annual survey by Human Rights Watch, which criticises the Ugandan government for a variety of alleged abuses. Tanzania is not included in the survey of more than 60 nations worldwide.

The New York-based non-governmental organisation also calls for large-scale United Nations military intervention in Sudan's Darfur region, saying the African Union force being dispatched to Darfur lacks the capacity to operate effectively. But Human Rights Watch holds out little hope that the nations comprising the UN Security Council will initiate life-saving action.

"Everyone has something more important to do than to save the people of Darfur," says Kenneth Roth, the group's director.

In the two years it has held power in Kenya, the government of President Mwai Kibaki gives cause for "both hope and disappointment," Human Rights Watch finds. While Kenyan authorities have committed "few serious abuses," there is potential for serious problems because "much of the repressive state machinery from the Moi era remains intact," the report notes.

Among the "commendable and promising steps" taken to address human-rights issues, the report cites the Kenyan government's appointment of well-known activists to high office as well as efforts to reform the judiciary, police and prison services.

Human Rights Watch approvingly notes the forced resignation of High Court Chief Justice Bernard Chunga. The group also hails as "a welcome step" the shake-up of the judiciary following a report that accused 23 judges of corruption.

But due-process protection was not observed in the case of those dismissals, Human Rights Watch suggests, noting, "The expulsion of judges considered - but not yet found - guilty of corruption, ineptitude or improper conduct amounts to a denial of due process."

The report also sees gains for freedom of the press in Kenya in 2004. And although its findings were compiled prior to the government's recent actions against a Standard editor and reporter, the Human Rights Watch report does note that some Moi-era restrictions on the press remain intact.

The Narc government is rebuked for allegedly failing to punish corruption within its own ranks.

"There is growing impunity for actions by those in the inner circle of government," Human Rights Watch charges. "Since the new government came to power, there have been several instances of government ministers publicly expressing their intention to disregard court injunctions; property expropriated by executive order; and reluctance to prosecute violations by the president's supporters."

A double standard is being applied, the report suggests - one for official misdeeds of the Moi era and another for those alleged to have occurred during the past two years. "High-ranking Kibaki officials are not being held to account for abuses in the same way as former Moi government officials," Human Rights Watch observes.

Kenya's current leadership is further faulted for delaying action on the draft Constitution, which is described as "a symbol of the hopes and aspirations of Kenyans for a participatory democracy." The proposed Constitution represents "the most widely consultative rights document that Kenya has ever seen and contains better human-rights guarantees than the current Constitution," according to the report.

Human Rights Watch says the government appears unwilling to adopt institutional reforms "that would fundamentally limit the extensive presidential and executive powers it inherited".

In its section on Uganda, the rights group's annual survey deplores abuses committed by the Lord's Resistance Army while accusing government forces of torturing suspected LRA members and sympathisers.

But the report also approvingly notes the "unprecedented step" taken by President Yoweri Museveni in referring the LRA case to the International Criminal Court. Human Rights Watch adds, however, that Uganda peace activists "remain wary that Museveni will manipulate this international institution to punish his foes, and thereby diminish chances for a negotiated settlement, while avoiding investigation of the Ugandan army's abuses".

The Ugandan People's Defence Force has "committed abuses in the north, including arbitrary detention, torture, rape, and stealing," the report states. It adds that UPDF soldiers are rarely punished for abusing civilians.

Human-rights violations on the part of government forces are not limited to the northern war zone, the report indicates.

Several official agencies have been accused of torture, the report notes, citing the UPDF's Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, the Internal Security Organisation, the Violent Crime Crack Unit, and the Joint Anti-Terrorist Task Force. "Methods of torture include suspending suspects tied kandoya (tying hands and feet behind the victim) from the ceiling, severe beating and kicking, and attaching electric wires to the male genitals," the report states.

The Ugandan government is continuing to support armed groups in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Human Rights Watch. This support for proxy forces inside the DRC is in part intended to protect Uganda's border region but also "to ensure continued control over the lucrative trade in natural resources from the DRC, particularly gold," the report says.

Press freedoms were not always respected in 2004, the survey finds, citing official denunciations of journalists employed by the Monitor newspaper, which is published by the Nation Media Group.

But the report also points to a Supreme Court action last February that enhanced freedom of _expression_ by repealing a law allowing journalists to be prosecuted for reporting "subversive" or "false" news.

[Ugnet] Human Rights Watch Gives Kenya Mixed Review, Slams Uganda

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