A/HRC/13/42*
page 127
Kololo, an upmarket suburb of Kampala where many embassies and ambassadors’ residences are
located, and where the use of torture was commonplace. The report was based on a detailed
analysis of the activities of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT), established in 1999
primarily to deal with the threat posed by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel
group based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, as Human Rights Watch
explained, under the cover of its mandate to deal with terrorism, “individuals allegedly linked to
other groups, such as Al-Qaida, have also suffered at the hands of JATT”.481
276. Moreover, although the Rwandan newspaper the New Times reported on 19 July 2006 that
Kyanjo Hussein, the shadow Minister for Internal Affairs had told a meeting of the
Parliamentary Committee of Internal Affairs and Defence in July 2006 that JATT was holding
30 Rwandan and Congolese detainees,482 and former detainees also told Human Rights Watch
about non-Ugandans held in Kololo for long periods of time, and explained that “they saw
foreigners, such as Somalis, Rwandans, Eritreans and Congolese, in the JATT compound”, it
appears that the majority of cases involved terrorism - and, specifically, fears of terrorist
activities organized by Muslims, who make up 12 per cent of the population of Uganda. Human
Rights Watch noted that, “of the 106 named individuals detained by JATT documented by
Human Rights Watch, all but two were Muslim”.483
277. Of the foreigners held specifically in connection with terrorism, the most prominent
examples are two South Africans citizens, Mufti Hussain Bhayat and Haroon Saley, who were
arrested at Entebbe Airport on 18 August 2008 and taken to Kololo. Although the men’s capture
received significant news coverage in Uganda and South Africa, they were held in Kololo for 11
days without charge, and were only freed - and deported - when their lawyer secured a habeas
corpus hearing. Relating his experience afterwards, Mr. Bhayat stated that “questions were read
from a roll of fax paper from an unknown source”, which suggests that JATT was also working
with the intelligence services of other countries.483
7. Zimbabwe
278. In Zimbabwe, in 2008, an election year that was marked by extensive human rights abuses
resulting in “at least 180 deaths, and at least 9,000 people injured from torture, beatings and
other violations perpetrated mainly by security forces, war veterans and supporters of the
Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU-PF)”,484 the Government also seized at least 24
human rights defenders and political activists, and their family members, held them in
481
Human Rights Watch, “Open secret: illegal detention and torture by the Joint Anti-Terrorism
Task Force in Uganda”, April 2009. Available from www.hrw.org/node/82082.
482
Charles Kazooba and Jumah Senyonga, “Ugandan MP exposes Rwandan illegal arrests in
Kampala”, New Times, 19 July 2006.
483
484
Human Rights Watch, op. cit.
Amnesty International report on Zimbabwe (2009), available from
http://report2009.amnesty.org/en/regions/africa/zimbabwe.
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