Bodies still litter Ugandan capital — Amnesty report

Press, 31 July 1978, Page 9

Bodies still litter Ugandan capital — Amnesty report

International

NZPA

Melbourne

Dead bodies lie in the streets in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, but nobody dares approach them or comment, for fear of being killed, according to Amnesty International.

An Amnesty report, released last week, says the "reign of terror” in Uganda has started again in spite of promises by President Idi Amin that 1978 would be a year of “peace and reconciliation.”

Refugees who have escaped the terror are frightened to make reports in case of reprisals against relatives or friends.

There were signs in late 1977 and early this year that the spate of political killings had diminished in intensity, the report says.

But the pattern of arbitrary arrests, disappearances, torture, killings and violations of fundamental human rights was now persisting unaltered. Unless international pressure on Uganda increased, large-scale human rights violations of this nature could continue for a long time, the report says.

Many people have been arrested and killed simply because a security official or soldier decided to take their wife, house, car, property or shop, cattle or coffee crop. Torture methods included victims’ eyes being gouged out.

tonal concern and appeals on behalf of political prisoners. "Uganda is a member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights but the Government has consistently and with impunity denied basic human rights guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” In Washington the United States Senate has voted to impose a trade embargo against Uganda for human rights violations by the Amin government. The 72 to one vote came on an amendment to a Bill authorising United States participation in a special $10,600m International Monetary Fund facility. The amendment would prohibit all imports from Uganda or exports of non-agricultural goods to Uganda. Several American firms have already stopped buying coffee from Uganda.

Nearly all forms of torture which are still being practised have become wellknown and “institutionalised,” the report says. One prisoner who managed to escape told Amnesty International that the floors of one prison were littered with “loose eyes and teeth."

Another said he had been ordered at gun point to beat to death three other prisoners with an iron bar before he too escaped. The report concludes: “One of the most disturbing aspects of the situation is that the Ugandan Government had repeatedly ignored internat-