Niels Jacob Harbitz, right, programme co-ordinator for Africa for HRH F, recently represented the international human rights community on the investigation into an incident reported by Save the Children in the Kotido district of Karamoja in which the child rights agency alleged that 66 children were killed. Harbitz concludes that “on the basis of what our investigation found and on the balance of evidence accumulated by other investigative missions, children were killed as a direct consequence of the UPDF’s attack.” (25-JUNE-07)
This article is HRH F´s press statement about the conclusions Harbitz draws from the investigation and the reasons he gives for not signing the report of the rest of the team that he has been part of during and after the investigations.
To read Niels Jacob Harbitz’s full report, click here .
To read his statement explaining why he cannot sign the report of the rest of the team, click here .
Harbitz participated in a field visit with the investigation team, led by the Uganda Human Rights Commission, interviewing all main stakeholders and also visiting the scene of the alleged incident. With the full backing of HRH F, he has refused to put his name to the resulting report and feels compelled to put forward his own conclusions from the investigation.
These are Harbitz´s reasons why he refused to put his name to the report resulting from the investigation;
-I was consistently denied the opportunity to contribute to the drafting of the report.
-In my opinion, the versions of the report that were shared with me, failed to meet the requirements of the investigation, as set out in the Terms of Reference
-The investigation and versions of the report that I saw restricted themselves to verifying the allegations in the Save the Children report. This does not amount to an independent investigation into the specific incident
-The versions of the report I saw were neither impartial nor accurate. Instead they were biased; marginalising and discrediting one stakeholder and lending support to another.
-Five of the seven members of the team were employees of the State of Uganda. With the UPDF, another state body, as the suspect, there is reason to question the independence of the team.
-The version of the report I saw failed to include a single quote from any of the 400 members of the local community interviewed by the investigation team.
Human Rights House Foundation is an independent, international organisation with an engagement in Uganda dating back to 2002. Harbitz can be reached on cell phone number +47 915 26 584.
