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Between Two Fires Torture and Displacement in Northern Uganda

UPDATE

In September, the U.S. Senate passed Resolution 573 on Northern Uganda. In addition to broader humanitarian and human rights issues, this resolution addresses the lack of accountability and impunity within the Ugandan military highlighted in "Between Two Fires". If you are in the U.S, ACT NOW to demand that your congressional representatives turn the language in this recent bill into concrete action for the people of Northern Uganda.

BACKGROUND

Two decades of armed conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government in the Northern Uganda, has caused some nearly two million civilians to be displaced from their homes. Ordered into so-called protected camps, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) face heightened insecurity, appalling living conditions and the lack the means of subsistence. Abuses against these communities are rampant; the LRA has committed war crimes and gross violations of human rights including the abduction of over twenty thousand children, widespread maiming, rape and murder against the civilian population. These attacks have led to secondary displacement in which up to forty thousand children commute nightly from the camps to sleep in the relative safety of town centers.

While the LRA have been perpetrators of these crimes, the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF), the national army, has also committed human rights violations against civilians that include arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killing, torture and rape. The UPDF whose mandate is to protect civilians, has not only failed to prevent attacks and abductions by the LRA, but has also perpetrated grave abuses against civilians in a climate of impunity.

Human Rights Focus (HURIFO) and WITNESS have collaborated on a video advocacy campaign to address the issue of torture and other cruel and degrading punishment committed against the IDP communities of Northern Uganda. Through the personal stories of torture survivors, the video advocates for official acknowledgement of these abuses, redress for torture victims, as well as implementation of legislative measures to strengthen national mechanisms against the use of torture. Please join us in this campaign to end torture against displaced persons by taking action.