The Uganda Human Rights Commission accused the Ugandan People's Defense Forces (UPDF) of a swathe of abuses, including torture, around the country but particularly in the war-ravaged north where the army has been battling a near 20-year rebellion.

In a 216-page report, the government-appointed panel said it had received 108 complaints alleging torture of civilians by UPDF soldiers, most of them in areas where the military is fighting the notorious rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

"There were more reports of torture in the northern and eastern parts of the country by the UPDF than elsewhere," it said, attributing this to the fact that those areas are "operational zones" in the war with the LRA where soldiers have "more contact with civilians in the course of duty."

"The incidents during the year showed how high-handed some officers of the UPDF can be," it said.

One complaint alleged that a seven-month pregnant woman was held down by five soldiers and whipped by a sixth after quarrelling with another woman in a military barracks, according to the report.

Several male victims complained that soldiers suspended weights from their genitals and others said they were forced to pull back their foreskins and display their penises in a practice referred to by troops as a "video show," it said.

Some complaints accused UPDF forces of rubbing red pepper into civilians' eyes to secure false confessions during interrogations and others alleged that detainees were bayoneted and pistol-whipped, it said.

In its report, the commission also lamented that torture is not explicitly outlawed or punishable by existing criminal legislation and urged the government to enact such a proscription.

It was released on the heels of a September 20 report from New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) accusing Ugandan soldiers in the war-torn north of a raft of abuses caused by indiscipline and a failure to rein in errant behavior.

HRW said Ugandan troops were guilty of rape, beatings, arbitrary detentions and murders of civilians in camps for war-displaced people in northern Uganda.

The army has vehemently denied the HRW accusations and demanded a retraction from the group.

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