Kenyan army 'tortured' civilians

2008-04-28 10:40

Nairobi - Kenyan army officers tortured civilians in the west of the country where it is battling a militia fighting for land rights, a new report said on Monday.

The Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) said the army tortured hundreds of people between March and April as it cracked down on the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) militia in Mount Elgon region near the Ugandan border.

Soldiers beat their victims, forced them to crawl naked on their stomachs along the ground and sometimes across barbed wire while officers stepped on them, said the report by the Nairobi-based group.

Some prisoners were also sexually assaulted and humiliated, as soldiers inserted gun barrels into the rectums of some victims, and forced them to pull each other's genital organs and suck each other's breasts, it added.

Denied food

Prisoners were also denied food.

"The entire duration of torture lasted between two hours and six hours during the day and in some cases went on for up to five days," said the IMLU said.

The authorities have restricted journalists and aid workers from visiting the remote ranges, saying it is military's zone of operations, but the IMLU claimed this was part of a cover-up campaign.

"The operation discloses a co-ordinated effort and cover-up by all security agents and state departments as well as complacency on the part of senior state officials including President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga," the report added.

Human rights activists have already condemned what they have called systematic abuses in Kenya under the government of President Mwai Kibaki.

Earlier this month, the New York-based Human Rights Watch group said the military killed people, forced others to flee and detained and tortured detainees in the latest crackdown.

Allegations rejected

The rights panel also accused the SLDF militia of killings, mutilations, rapes and the destruction and theft of property in the Mount Elgon area.

Last week, Defence Minister Yusuf Haji rejected the allegations against the army and blamed locals for torturing suspects before handing them over to the military.

The SLDF took up arms in 2005 in protest at a government settlement scheme that displaced the small Sabaot tribes from their ancestral land.

The militia campaign has claimed hundreds of lives and displaced tens of thousands of people.

Amnesty International is pressing Kenya's new coalition government to prosecute the perpetrators of post-election violence that claimed at least 1 500 people and displacing hundreds of thousands.

- AFP