Ugandan cop unit disbanded over abuse claims

Ugandan police on Friday disbanded their elite Rapid Response Unit over allegations of serious human rights abuses, a spokesman said.

Originally set up in 2002 under a different name to deal with violent crimes, the Rapid Response Unit has been accused by rights groups of routinely torturing detainees and carrying out extrajudicial killings.

“Police management has disbanded the (Rapid Response Unit) because you will note that we have registered a series of complaints on the human rights record,” police spokesman Asuman Mugenyi said.

He said there had also been issues with “professionalism” in the unit as some of the operatives were untrained civilian informers.

“It's important that the Ugandan police have recognised the human rights abuses committed by RRU operatives, but those cases must still be investigated and prosecuted,” Maria Burnett, Human Rights Watch Africa researcher, told AFP.

“Without more serious and rigorous focus on accountability within the police, the abuses will likely continue despite the end of RRU.”

In a report in March, the watchdog documented scores of cases of alleged torture and at least six cases of extrajudicial killings and said that the unit's plainclothes personnel frequently operated “outside the law.”

Despite claims by rights activists that few police operatives have been charged over accusations of abuse, police spokesman Mugenyi said “very many” officers from the unit had been brought to court and that some victims had received compensation.

He said that the unit was not being reconstituted under another name and that its duties would be taken over by the Field Force Unit and the Criminal Investigation Department. - Sapa-AFP