FIRST READ:
Human Rights
Violations in UPDF Operations in Karamoja
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/09/10/get-gun-0
When the Uganda People’s Defence force (UPDF) terrorized Kapeeka residents rendering them completely defenseless: When the people’s army does not give a damn about the poor people.
Massacres and
other Abuses by the FNI, FAPC and the Ugandan Army
UPDF shies away from raped woman
By Steven Ariong
Posted Tuesday, November 6 2012 at 02:00
Posted Tuesday, November 6 2012 at 02:00
In Summary
The woman, who was gang-raped by soldiers, no longer
responds to treatment while her relatives have given up on her.Moroto
The army has said it is no longer responsible for a Karimojong woman who was allegedly gang-raped by soldiers.
Capt. Deo Akiki, the UPDF 3rd Division spokesperson, in an email, said the army had only assisted the victim on humanitarian grounds. “UPDF played its humanitarian part in helping that girl, so we are no longer responsible for her,” he added.
The 20-year-old, Ms Teddy Nakiru, who was confined in a wheelchair at Mulago hospital before she was transferred to Moroto Referral Hospital, was allegedly raped by 12 soldiers from the UPDF 13th Battalion in Tapac Sub-county during last year’s New Year’s Eve.
The woman had earlier told this newspaper that she fell victim after leaving a function organised by a church at Tapac Trading Centre.
Ms Nakiru said soldiers guarding the congregation ordered everybody to leave the venue, arguing that it was late. “As I was walking alone on my way back home, I met a group of soldiers. They first asked for my name but I kept quiet and continued walking, then one of them grabbed my hand while another shut my mouth and they stripped me naked. I fell down and three of them raped me,” Ms Nakiru said.
She says she recalls only waking up in hospital in terrible pain. The victim’s condition has worsened at Moroto hospital. She feels a lot of pain, screams and bites her tongue. Her relatives on Sunday decided to take her back to their ancestral home to die from there after they gave up taking care of her.
Nurses attending to her also told the Daily Monitor that treating Nakiru had become difficult because her body was no longer responding to treatment. The victim’s mother, Ms Veronica Nakiru, said: “We know we are going to lose her and we pray her soul rests in peace.”
Capt. Akiki referred the Daily Monitor to the officials of NET, a humanitarian organisation that has been taking care of the victim. We could not reach the organisation as the contact numbers given did not go through.
Rape by UPDF Soldiers
Women in a number of camps told Human Rights Watch how they had been raped by soldiers from the Ugandan army. Women are particularly exposed at night if they are found outside of their huts.
One woman from Amida camp in Kitgum went out at night to use the latrine. A soldier forced her at gunpoint to the edge of the camp and raped her, threatening to kill her if she refused him. She said:
He said to me if I rejected him he would kill me. He began to squeeze me, he forced me on the ground and raped me. When he finished he left me-he knocked me down on the legs with his knee so I didn't know where he was going.82
Girls are often the victims. A man from Bobi camp, Gulu discovered that his sixteen-year-old daughter had gone missing on the morning of January 26, 2005. He learned from a nephew that she had been taken by UPDF soldiers and one of the soldiers was raping her in a hut on the other side of the camp. He said, "When I arrived at the hut the soldier had gone and my daughter was inside the hut crying." At the hospital the next day doctors confirmed she had been raped.83
