PHA-Exchange> Situation in Northern Uganda

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End Torture in Northern Uganda

Two decades of armed conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and
the Ugandan government in Northern Uganda have displaced nearly two million
civilians from their homes. Ordered into so-called protected camps,
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) face heightened insecurity, appalling
living conditions and lack the basic means of subsistence. Human Rights Focus
(HURIFO) and WITNESS have co-produced "Between Two Fires: Torture and
Displacement in Northern Uganda" to address the issue of torture 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, and strengthened national
mechanisms against the use of torture. 

http://www.witness.org/option,com_rightsalert/Itemid,178/task,view/alert_id,47/

Abuses against the IDP 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. 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 has committed these atrocities, the Ugandan People's Defense
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. 

Please join us in this campaign to end torture against IDPs in Northern
Uganda by taking action at www.witness.org.

Sincerely,

Hakima Abbas
Program Coordinator for Africa and Middle East 




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