Update: Besigye injured and in custody
By Arne Doornebal, Kampala
Military ‘mamba’ vehicles patrol Kampala and the road to Kasangati, where the riots started today. At least five mamba’s are parked on the way, with dozens of citizens around them staring at the big guns on top. The 12-km stretch to Kasangati is littered with debris, left-overs of the roadblocks that angry residents placed on countless locations. There are also the remains of bonfires. Hundreds of policemen patrol the area, while military policemen in Besigye’s hometown of Kasangati force ordinary citizens to clean up the rubbish.
As I drive by, military police harass a woman and then arrest a man in a violent way. In Kalerwe, close to Kampala’s city centre, heavy armed police-officers board a passenger car. Elsewhere, a policeman tries to calm residents.
I am swarmed by people when I ask the residents of Gayaza whether they support the riots. All of them point out the rising food prices. “We’ll protest as long as our leader Besigye wants,” says one of them. After the long stand-off this morning, Besigye was arrested and brought to an unknown location in Kampala. During his arrest he injured his hand.
Gunshots rocked the Ugandan village of Kasangati this morning, after police stopped opposition leader Kizza Besigye from walking to his office in Kampala. Also in neighbouring Gayaza town teargas canisters were fired at protestors. The chaos is reportedly spreading to Uganda’s capital Kampala.
By Arne Doornebal, Kampala
Kizza Besigye, leader of Uganda’s largest opposition party Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), has been involved in a ‘walk2work’ protest this week and was briefly detained on Monday. “We do this to show solidarity,” Besigye told RNW yesterday during an interview in Kampala. “Solidarity with the suffering members of our society, who are already walking to work in their tens of thousands. They are forced to walk long distances everyday to go and work because people can no longer afford public transport.”
Walk to Kampala
An upbeat Besigye welcomed a handful of journalists at 06:30 at his home this morning, setting off his march towards Kampala. Within minutes, dozens of people followed the politician and just after stretching the legs for one kilometre, police stopped him. In the chaos, Besigye ended up in a ditch next to the newly built road. There was a two-hour stand-off, during which both heavily armed police as well as Besigyes’ supporters rose by the hundreds.
Soon after trucks with water cannons moved in and the crowd was dispersed by shooting in the air. Canisters of tear gas exploded all around. Pupils who walked by got sick from the gas, as did several protestors. A choking man was rushed away by a red cross ambulance. While rubber bullets and tear gas from the police were answered with stones thrown by protestors, Besigye remained in the ditch where the stand-off continued. The Besigye group used handkerchiefs to cover their mouth and eyes.
Government to blame
According to the opposition parties, the government's overspending is the reason for Uganda’s current high inflation. They blame the government of taking money from the national reserves during the recent election campaign.
Besigye, once President Museveni’s ally and personal doctor during the war that brought the current regime to power, claims Museveni can only stay in power by the means of force. “If you are governing
according the will of the people you don’t need all these troops andarmored vehicles in your city,” Besigye said. “Especially if you claim that you won an election by almost 70 percent of the vote, why would you be panicking about a Kizza Besigye who might be walking from his village to the office?”
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