Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1985
UGANDA
Elements of the Ugandan National Liberation Army (UNLA) , led
by senior military officers primarily from the Acholi ethnic
group, overthrew the government of President A. Milton Obote
on July 27, 1985. An Interim Military Government (IMG) headed
by a Military Council was installed with General Tito Okello
Lutwa, formerly Chief of the Defense Forces, as Head of State
and Military Council chairman. Immediately after assuming
power, the Military Council began appointing a broad-based
civilian cabinet, comprising all major ethnic groups as well
as representatives of the four political parties which had
contested the disputed 1980 election. The Council
subsequently included members of four insurgent groups, but
not Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army /Movement
(NRA/NRM) , which is dominated by Bantus, in particular the
Banyankole. Museveni's NRM/NRA forces continued hostilities
against the interim Government but also agreed to enter into
peace talks with the IMG in Nairobi under the chairmanship of
Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi . The talks culminated in a
peace accord signed on December 17, in Nairobi between Okello
and Museveni, who agreed to join the Government as vice
chairman of the Military Council. By early 1986, the terms of
the Accord had not been implemented, and further fighting took
place. As of late January, the NRA appeared to have taken
control of the capital.
When Idi Amin fled Uganda in 1979, he left behind a devastated
economy. Uganda has great agricultural potential with its
fertile soil and regular rainfall and also has substantial
mineral deposits. But the economy has continued to decline
under the impact of civil war and social upheaval entailing
the dislocation of thousands of people. The Obote government,
with the assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
introduced ambitious economic reform measures in 1981, with
some initial success, but abandoned the IMF program in 1983
due to the deteriorating security situation. Since then, the
inflation rate has soared from 25 to 30 percent a year in 1983
to an estimated 175 percent in 1985. The new Government's
economic program had not crystallized by the end of 1985 as
first priority was given to ending the civil war.
Human rights issues have played a major role in Uganda's
turbulent 23-year post independence history. The depredations
of the Amin years are well-known and well documented. Chaos
and widespread human rights violations continued during the
1979-80 interim governments. After initial promise, the
1980-85 Obote government was widely discredited by the time it
fell because of its unwillingness, or inability, to halt or
prevent large-scale violations of human rights, particularly
perpetrated by ill-disciplined soldiers during military
operations against the NRA, as well as unrestrained activities
of civilian intelligence, security, and ruling-party agents.
Various guerrilla groups bent on the violent overthrow of the
Obote government also contributed to human rights violations
through the use of both indiscriminate and selective
terrorism. A special Amnesty International Report released in
June 1985, indicated that the government security forces had
been involved in mass detentions, routine torture, widespread
abductions, and frequent killings of prisoners.
Following the coup respect for rule of law improved
temporarily, e.g. , most political detainees were released in
the first 2 weeks. But members of the UNLA, augmented by
the four other ill-disciplined fighting forces (not including
NRA) , and untrained new recruits, were soon implicated in rape
and indiscriminate killing of civilians as well as looting of
civilian and government properties. The worst, documented
human rights violations took place in September-October in the
Luwero triangle, a region north and northwest of the capital
Kampala, which has been the principal area of
government- insurgent conflict since 1981. While the IMG
undertook a concerted public effort to punish offenders, its
ability to control its soldiers and allied fighting forces
still remained in doubt at the end of 1985. Underlying the
civil strife is a profound tension among the three main ethnic
groups: Bantu, Nilotic, and Nilo-Hamitic .
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
Freedom From:
a. Political Killing
While it often was difficult to distinguish between victims of
war and of political murder, there continued to be clear
evidence of extralegal killings in Uganda in 1985, both before
and after the July coup. Most of the killings were of
villagers who died during and after military engagements
between the government forces and the National Resistance Army
(NRA) and other fighting forces. During 1985, the NRA, which
had hitherto been based in the Luwero triangle, made a series
of attacks to the west, culminating in a splitting of the NRA
into two forces, one remaining in the triangle and the other
in the foothills of the Ruwenzori mountains of western
Uganda. As the NRA moved through territory, the Uganda
Liberation Army (UNLA) would typically follow and loot the
town, sometimes killing suspected NRA sympathizers.
A number of killings were reported to have been committed by
members of the youth wing of Obote's ruling party, the Uganda
People Congress (UPC). In March and April 1985, armed youth
reportedly entered villages where weddings were taking place
and, using grenades and automatic weapons, killed a number of
the celebrants. At least two incidents of this nature took
place in each of which a minimum of 10 people were killed and
over 30 wounded.
There were also credible reports of a number of killings at
military detention centers, military barracks, and civilian
detention centers carried out by civilian security agents
responsible directly to the Minister of State in the office of
the President. In one incident in May, villagers identified a
UNLA military truck which dropped off a load of more than a
dozen mutilated bodies near Kampala. Reliable sources said
the bodies had come from Makyndye Barracks in Kampala, where
many extralegal detentions were known to occur.
After the July 27 coup, further evidence of political killings
during the Obote regime came to light. Among the most
publicized were two mass burials of anonymous victims in the
Luwero triangle. Conducted by senior IMG officials and
participated in by ordinary citizens, the ceremonies involved
the internment of hundreds of persons. Responsibility for the
killings could not be definitely established, although general
opinion was that they had been committed by agents of the
Obote government .
Beginning in September there were new reports of killings,
principally in the Luwero triangle area. The pattern was one
of indiscriminate killing of civilians by soldiers of the UNLA
as augmented by other fighting groups, principally the Uganda
National Rescue Front (UNRF) and the Former Ugandan National
Army (FUNA) .
On October 5, members of the IMG, including Minister of
Internal Affairs and leader of the Democratic Party (DP) Paul
Ssemogerere and Major General Issac Lumago, leader of FUNA,
toured the capital of Luwero district which had recently been
the scene of a UNLA/NRA confrontation. The team found
evidence of indiscriminate killing by members of the
government forces, but no disciplinary action was taken.
Not all extralegal killings in Uganda during 1985 can be
attributed to government forces. In the wake of the change of
governinent, a number of local party officials and government
appointees of the UPC were murdered, presumably out of revenge
by citizens enraged at what was perceived to be an arrogation
and abuse of power during the Obote era by these officials.
There have also been reports that the principal dissident
group, the NRA, has executed civilians whom it suspected of
being government informers. There was one credible report
that in 1984 NRA exterminated the population of a village in
the Luwero triangle in retribution for a villager's betrayal
of the whereabouts of an NRA detachment.
b. Disappearance
Reports of disappearance through abduction in 1985 were common
and probably reached into the hundreds of cases. However, the
number of disappearances dropped off significantly after the
fall of the Obote government. The reasons for disppearances
range from political thuggery to ransom, which was possibly
the most common motive. Since the coup, each of the fighting
groups, including government forces as well as those allied
with the Government and the NRA, has been accused of
responsibility for disappearances.
The most notable disappearance that occurred during 1985 was
that of Sebastian Ssebugwawo, a member of Parliament for the
opposition Democratic Party. Ssebugwawo disappeared in late
May 1985 after an altercation with a military officer. It is
presumed that Ssebugwawo was killed, but his body was never
recovered, and the Obote government's investigation was
inconclusive. Members of Ssebugwawo ' s party accused the Obote
government of conducting an investigation that was at best pro
forma. The postcoup government has arrested two members of
the military, a captain and a sergeant, who were allegedly
involved in the abduction and presumed murder of Ssebugwawo.
c. Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment
Torture and inhuman treatment are not sanctioned by Ugandan
law, but for many years there have been credible reports of
extreme forms of torture taking place at detention centers,
particularly military barracks, where political prisoners were
often held illegally. The situation was extensively
documented in Amnesty International's June 1985 special report
on the state of human rights in Uganda in which Amnesty
asserted that it had "received a detailed account from someone
who claims to have been tortured in a military barracks as
recently as February 1985." A favored method of torture,
often resulting in death, was to tie a victim down, sometimes
in the presence of other prisoners, with a burning tire
suspended above. The molten rubber drips onto the victim's
face and body. Other reported means of torture and degrading
treatment included rape, beatings, bayonetting, and
castration.
All fighting groups, including government forces and the NRA,
have been accused of employing torture. The numbers of
persons physically abused are estimated in the thousands
during 1985, with the rate probably dropping off somewhat
after the ousting of the Obote government and the disbandment
of the National Security Agency, allegedly a frequent user of
torture. Conditions in detention centers, which had been
greatly increased in number to handle the demand, were poor.
Bodies were left after death (from beatings, starvation,
illness, etc.). Sanitation and medical assistance were
nonexistent. On August 10, over 1,200 political detainees
were given their freedom in a public ceremony presided over by
General Okello. Some of these Obote era detainees were in
such poor physical condition that they were taken immediately
from prison to the hospital. According to reliable reports,
the NRA since the coup has instituted its own detention
centers for persons it finds objectionable and which are
outside the jurisdiction of Ugandan law (the numbers of such
persons held by the NRA are unknown, but indications are they
are in the hundreds) . NRA detention policies reportedly have
been based on ethnic and political considerations.
The year 1985 saw the continuation of reports both before and
after the coup, that rape of women and forced concubinage by
government forces occured, with instances of females under 12
among the victims.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
A number of persons were subject to arbitrary detention, both
legal and extralegal, during the first part of 1985. Legal
detentions are accomplished under the Detention and Security
Act of 1966, although this law has often been applied
capriciously and was used during the Obote period against the
opposition Democratic Party and suspected members of the NRA
and other antigovernment groups. Extralegal detentions were
most often performed by the military and civilian security
agencies, such as the National Security Agency. In the case
of military detentions, the victims were usually either
detained on suspicion of being guerrilla sympathizers or,
perhaps more commonly, were simply chosen as targets of ransom
demands .
In August and September 1985, the IMG released a total of
1,400 Obote-era detainees. According to the Government, at
the end of 1985, there were approximately 150 uncharged
suspects in custody, primarily members of the disbanded
National Security Agency, all of whom were accused of criminal
activities. The IMG has issued one detention order since the
coup, that for Cris Rwakasiisi, Minister of State in the
Office of the President under Obote and responsible for
overseeing National Security Agency operations. The IMG
apprehended in 1985 over 200 officers and enlisted men caught
looting or committing other crimes against civilians. Some
were turned over to civil authorities for prosecution, and
others were to be tried by courts martial. In addition, there
were an unknown number being held extralegally by government
forces, four allied fighting groups, and the NRA (in western
and southwestern portions of the country controlled by the
NRA) .
Since the coup, the IMG has invited all Ugandans living in
exile to return home. Some prominent Ugandans took advantage
of the IMG's invitation to return, notably former President
Godfrey Binaisa. The principal impediments to Ugandans
returning appeared to be security and economic conditions
within Uganda, rather than government policy. While the IMG
made greater efforts to see that those exiled in Sudan and
Zaire returned, it stated that the Banyarwanda (forced earlier
into Rwanda) were also included in this appeal.
The Government, both before and since the coup, has not had a
policy of forced or compulsory labor. However, individual
government soldiers, primarily in the Luwero triangle, have
reportedly forced women into concubinage and required them to
raise crops, do household work, etc. Under Obote, especially
in the north, children were abducted by military personnel and
kept as personal servants.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The Ugandan judicial system contains procedural safeguards
modeled after British law, including the granting of bail and
appeals to higher courts. The legal profession is generally
respected. However, there have been many inequities in the
working of the judicial system due to government pressures, to
the general disorganization of the courts and the blurring of
judicial jurisdiction during the civil war, and to alleged
corruption among some members of the judiciary, e.g., the
Government's use of extralegal and legal detention during the
Obote period effectively prevented many individuals from
receiving a fair trial. Moreover, during the Obcte period,
the government reportedly engaged in the harassment of
attorneys, including detention of some lawyers suspected of
being politically opposed to the government or the ruling UPC
party. There were reports that compliant judges during the
Obote period were assigned to politically sensitive cases out
of normal rotation.
The IMG signaled its intention to restore the independence and
impartiality of the judicial system by appointing a
well-respected non-Ugandan to the position of Chief Justice.
It had also initiated a reorganization of the judicial
administrative system by the end of 1985.
There are no special courts for political or security cases.
During the Obote period, members of the military and security
forces enjoyed a near total immunity from civilian judicial
authority, despite the formation of a legal unit within the
UNLA in December 1984 for the purpose of carrying out
courts-martial of soldiers accused of crimes. The IMG
announced its intention in October to prosecute members of the
military under the terms of the Military Act of 1966. The IMG
also apprehended over 200 officers and enlisted men who were
caught looting or committing other crimes.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
Undisciplined elements of both the Obote and IMG regimes
interfered with privacy and family through harassment of the
populace, including physical abuse, and large-scale looting.
In the first half of 1985 such activities were confined
principally to the areas of armed conflict, i.e., the Luwero
triangle and areas of western Uganda. During and immediately
after the July 27 coup, looting, hijacking of private
vehicles, and armed robbery continued in Kampala and in other
disturbed areas. Without sufficient pay, food, housing, or
clothing, the soldiers from disparate government forces turned
to robbing citizens in the streets, often at roadblocks as
well as in their homes. Elements of the military, often in
league with civilians, also mounted larger-scale looting
expeditions to strip entire households of furnishings in
Kampala and other areas, particularly where military
operations were taking place. Lira, the major city in Obote's
home region of Lango, was also badly looted, reportedly by
members of UNLA and associated paramilitary groups.
There was no indication that either the Obote regime or the
IMG has interfered with correspondence.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Rights Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
Despite the imposition of a military government, there is
extensive public debate over the issues of the day, including
in the press. Ugandan journalists indicate that freedom of
the press has increased since the coup, and this was reflected
in the coverage of internal events including reporting of
human rights violations. Nevertheless, on January 2, 1986,
the IMG announced the formation of a Press Security Committee
whose ostensible purpose is to prevent sensational press
reporting.
In early October, the Ugandan press began to report atrocities
including indiscriminate killing and rape by government forces
in the Luwero triangle. The IMG responded by assembling a
high-level team of government officials and a pool of Ugandan
journalists to make a trip into the disturbed area to
investigate the charges. The visit was covered extensively by
government television as well as independent news media.
During the Obote period there was no official censorship, but
there was considerable pressure on journalists to toe the
government line, and a number of journalists were detained,
usually under the Detention Act, for having written stories
critical of the government and the ruling UPC party. About 10
journalists were detained in the 1984-85 period. Following
the coup, the IMG has not interfered with the operation of the
press, except for the detention of one Ugandan journalist, who
was released uncharged and unharmed after 3 weeks. Foreign
journalists, including some who could not obtain visas during
the Obote period, have been able to enter Uganda and have had
access to the new leaders .
The Obote government banned one magazine in March, apparently
for a critical article. Otherwise, international
publications — often highly critical of the Obote as well as
current Government — were readily available for sale in Uganda
in 1985.
Prior to the coup in early 1985, the citizenship of a
prominent Ugandan academic, Mahmood Mamdani, was revoked.
Mamdani, who is of Asian heritage, claimed the revocation was
illegal. It is widely believed that this action was taken
because Mamdani had criticized the Minister of State in the
President's office.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
The right of assembly and association in Uganda is generally
respected, but permits for public gatherings must be obtained
from police authorities who have the right to deny the permit
in the interest of public safety. During the Obote period,
nonpolitical events and national celebrations were often given
strong government party overtones. In the early campaign for
the scheduled 1985 elections, which were subsequently
cancelled, a number of opposition political rallies were
subject to harassment by UPC youth. In some instances,
rallies were canceled by security authorities ostensibly
because of "security problems." Since the coup, political
activities have been suspended, but public gatherings have
been permitted. Professional associations of doctors,
attorneys, engineers, and accountants operate without
hindrance, as do international associations such as the Rotary
Club, Lions, YMCA, and YWCA.
Under the Obote government, trade unionism remained limited
and subject to government party influence. UPC "workers'
councils" continued attempts to supplant traditional trade
unions. Trade unionists reported that before the coup they
were under government pressure to affiliate themselves with
the Communist-dominated World Federation of Trade Unions.
After the coup, unions were free to associate with any
international labor organization.
c. Freedom of Religion
There is no state religion in Uganda. Islam, Christianity,
and African traditional religions are freely practiced.
Conversion between religions is not obstructed. There is no
government control of religious publications, even those with
an antigovernment slant. Foreign missionaries and other
religious figures are welcome in Uganda. Religious leaders
frequently speak out publicly on topics relating to their
followers' welfare, addressing in particular human rights,
security, and political issues. The opinions of religious
leaders carry great weight in public discourse.
The UPC is to some extent identified with the Church of Uganda
(Anglican) while the Democratic Party is identified with Roman
Catholicism. However, followers of various religions are
found in both parties.
d. Freedom of Movement within the Country, Foreign
Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
In theory, Ugandans are free to move, reside, and choose their
place of work within the country. In practice, however,
travel within the country in 1985 was difficult in view of
sporadic guerrilla attacks, UNLA operations, and by October a
de facto partition of western and southwestern Uganda, which
were under NRA control, from the rest of the country. At
year's end, a short-lived ceasefire had increased freedom of
movement slightly. There are no restrictions which prevent
Ugandans from emigrating.
Perhaps as many as 500,000 persons have been displaced by
conflict within Uganda since 1980. Many have sought sanctuary
in neighboring states. The great majority of these displaced
persons and refugees fled to eastern Zaire and southern Sudan
in the aftermath of the 1979 liberation war and UNLA excesses
in repulsing a 1980 guerrilla attack in the west Nile region.
At its peak, the numbers of Ugandans in Zaire and Sudan
totaled approximately 150,000. During the first half of 1985
over 20,000 of these people returned to Uganda with the help
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Since
the coup, a large number of persons living in southern Sudan
have returned spontaneously to Uganda, several thousand of
whom were young men of military age who have come back to
serve in government fighting forces.
Approximately 40,000 Banyarwanda fled Uganda to Rwanda in
1982-83 as a result of quasi-official harassment of this
minority group. The majority were Ugandan citizens, but some
were Rwandese nationals. Although the Obote government
publicly invited these persons to return to Uganda as part of
its stated policy of reconcilation and no revenge, it was
reluctant to support a full-scale repatriation of the
Banyarwanda, including those with valid legal claims to
Ugandan nationality. Possibly 25,000 Banyarwanda have
spontaneously repatriated themselves since the coup, mainly
settling in southwestern Uganda, an area under NRA control.
There were credible reports that some Banyarwanda returnees
had been recruited into NRA forces. At the end of 1985, an
estimated 200,000 persons out of Uganda's population of 15
million still lived abroad.
The IMG has appealed to the international community for
assistance in resettlement of displaced persons, but the
security situation during most of 1985 prevented
implementation of such efforts.
Given the poor security and economic situation, there were few
non-Ugandans seeking refuge in Uganda. There were no reported
incidents of Uganda forcibly repatriating foreign refugees in
1985.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
Internal rivalry led a portion of the Uganda National
Liberation Army (UNLA) leadership — dominated by members of the
Acholi ethnic group — to seize control of the government in
July 1985 and to establish an Interm Military Government
(IMG), headed by a Military Council. The IMG suspended
political activity but it did not disband political parties.
The IMG recruited into the Military Council and civilian
Cabinet a cross section of ethnic, political, and religious
personalities to form a relatively broad based government,
excluding, however, supporters of Museveni's NRA. Four months
of negotiations, hosted by President Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya,
ceune close to bringing the NRM into the Council, but these
arrangements collapsed in early 1986.
President Obote and the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) ruled
Uganda for nearly 13 of its 23 years as an independent nation
(1962-71, and 1980-85). During these periods, Uganda
maintained the structure of a parliamentary democracy, with
elections, universal suffrage, legal opposition parties, and a
free press. The legitimacy of this democracy was called in
question under the first Obote government by postponement of
elections after 1962. There was a widespread belief that the
Obote government used its power to manipulate the 1980 general
elections. Democratic structures also were weakened by the
second Obote administration's extralegal actions, e.g. through
arbitrary arrest of suspected political opponents and by the
politicization of the armed forces and the exacerbation of
ethnic divisions.
At least five guerrilla groups of various sizes operated in
Uganda during the period 1981-85. Each had an ethnic base.
In additional to Museveni's National Resistance Movement and
Army (NRM/NRA) , dominated by the Banyankole, there were: the
Federal Democratic Union of Uganda (FEDEMU), the Uganda
Freedom Movement (UFM) , the Uganda National Rescue Front
(UNRF) and the Former Ugandan National Army (FUNA) . The
majority of the members of the first two groups — often led by
former government soldiers but composed primarily of ethnic
Bantu civilians turned guerrillas — were inside Uganda at the
time of the coup. Members of the second two groups — largely
led by and made up of ethnic Nilotics and ethnic Sudanics who
had served in the armed forces during the 1960 's and
1970s — were mostly in exile in Sudan and Zaire at the time of
the coup.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigations of Alleged Violations
of Human Rights
The Obote government was highly sensitive to any foreign
criticism of Uganda's human rights record and publicly
disputed Western reports of human rights violations in Uganda,
including the highly critical June 1985 Amnesty International
special report on the status of human rights in Uganda. The
Obote government invited representatives of Amnesty
International to visit Uganda's detention centers but the trip
did not materialize because of the July 27 coup. Amnesty
International in its 1985 Report (covering 1984) focused its
concern on the detention without trial of hundreds of alleged
political opponents of the Obote government. Freedom House
rated Uganda "partly free."
One of the first acts of the Interim Military Government was
to appoint as Minister of Internal Affairs, Paul K.
Ssemogerere, leader of the opposition Democratic Party and
long-time critic of the Obote regime's stand on human rights
practices. While there continued to be serious human rights
violations in Uganda due to the IMG's inability to control its
troops and associated forces, the IMG made a credible effort
to confront and report these incidents.
The largest of the nongovernment organizations in Uganda, the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), continued its
programs of prison visits to both IMG and NRA controlled
facilities, tracing, family reunification, and emergency
assistance in disturbed areas. The ICRC has not been able,
however, to gain permission to enter military barracks where
detainees are held. The Uganda Red Cross continued to be very
much in the forefront of relief efforts and other public
service work and has been tasked with helping to resettle
Banyarwanda returnees at such time as that program can
commence. Other nongovernmental organizations working in
Uganda include the League of Red Cross Societies, Oxford
Famine Relief, Save the Children Fund, Doctors without
Borders, the German Emergency Doctors, as well as many foreign
religious organizations.
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL SITUATION
Uganda's estimated population of 14.7 million is growing at
the annual rate of 3 . 1 percent, according to the World Bank.
Gross national product per capita in 1983, the last year for
which figures are available, was $220 and has probably dropped
since then due to the disruption of the economy by civil
strife.
In the modern sector there are constraints on the economy,
notably a government monopoly on purchasing key agricultural
crops for export, but both the Obote and current Governments
have generally encouraged a free market economy. Coffee
exports are the source of over 90 percent of Uganda's foreign
exchange earnings. By November, however, much of the
processing of the coffee crop was disrupted because of the
civil war. This situation seriously affected Uganda's ability
to pay for essential imports, particularly petroleum
products. Nevertheless, Uganda has great economic potential
with important agricultural assets, including fertile soils,
regular rainfall, substantial deposit of minerals such as tin,
copper, and cobalt, a tradition of productive local
enterprise, and facilities such as a road network and
hydroelectric power. The Obote government, with IMF
assistance, introduced ambitious economic reform measures
starting in 1981 but later abandoned these measures as the
overall security situation worsened, and inflation soared to a
projected rate of 175 percent by late 1985. Following the
coup, the IMG began talks with the IMF with a view toward
eventually reinstituting a reform program.
Life expectancy at birth is 49.1 years. The health
infrastructure, which was devastated during the 1970 's,
continued to be one of the government's top priorities in
1985. Infant mortality is one index of the breakdown in
health care. According to UNICEF, one village near Kampala
experienced an infant mortality rate of 32 deaths per 1,000
live births in the late 1960 's; this had risen to over 90 in
1984. In 1985, the national infant mortality rate was 112.8
per 1,000 live births, up from 92.6 in 1984, according to
World Bank figures.
Both the Obote and present Governments have made
rehabilitation of the educational infrastructure,
internationally renowned in the 1960 's and a notable casualty
of the Amin period, a top priority, together with medical
services. However, there were credible reports that funds
earmarked for education in the Obote government were diverted
by personal and government party corruption. What educational
renewal has taken place in the past 5 years has resulted from
foreign assistance and from many self-help groups formed by
parents, teachers, religious, and other civic groups which
have provided much of the material and labor to rehabilitate
schools. In 1982, a relatively peaceful year, the primary
school enrollment ratio was 68 percent of the eligible
children (79 percent for males, 57 percent for females). The
adult literacy rate in 1980 was 52 percent (65 percent for
males, 40 percent for females).
Minimum age for employment is 12 years except on light work
which the Minister of Labor may exempt by statutory order. In
addition, there are restrictions for employing persons under
16 years old in mining and at night — apprenticeships
exempted. The minimum wage is that of the lowest paid person
employed by the Kampala City Council, currently about $14 per
month. 00). Medical care is to be provided by employers.
Women are not legally discriminated against or officially
restricted from education or employment. However, their
access to education has been declining, according to United
Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, as the
educational system deteriorates and the economy declines.
Families withdraw daughters rather than sons from school in
times of economic hardship. At the same time, women have been
active in politics at the grass roots level and have held
several senior positions in national parties as well as in
government. There were no women of cabinet-level rank in the
IMG government .
The country's boundaries cut across contiguous tribal areas
and group together mutually distrustful ethnic groups.
Historical animosities between ethnic groups have been
exacerbated by Uganda's political problems and, in particular,
by the ruination of the country's economic and political
infrastructure during the Amin years, from which the country
has not recovered. Particularly damaging was the 1972
expulsion of an estimated 70,000 persons of Asian heritage who
comprised the backbone of Uganda's entrepreneurial and skilled
trade resources. The cumulative result of Uganda's long-term
ethnic civil conflict has led to a breakdown of the country's
social fabric. Two ethnic groups commonly are subject to
discrimination in delivery of the government's economic and
social services. These are the Banyarwanda and Karamajong.
As noted above, the Banyarwanda have suffered expulsion from
and displacement within Uganda. The Karamajong, who live in
northeastern Uganda, have had indiscriminate military action
directed against them in reprisal for their violent cattle
raiding.
