Besigye to Press On With Protests

12 April 2011

Nairobi — Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has vowed to press on with demonstrations against rising commodity prices in the country, a day after he was charged for attempting a similar protest.

“Absolutely nothing will stop us. Let them put all Ugandans in (jail),” Besigye told reporters, referring to security forces.

Opposition groups called for new protests on Thursday, urging people to walk to work to protest the high prices of fuel and other goods.

Food costs

The government has blamed a recent rise in fuel and food costs on high international oil prices and drought, but the opposition said it was due to mismanagement and corruption by the ruling class.

Police on Monday arrested Besigye and a dozen other opposition leaders after they attempted to walk from their homes to work in protest. They were later freed.

Besigye, who was President Yoweri Museveni’s main challenger in the February 18 elections, was charged with inciting violence and failure to obey a police officer, but later released on bail.

“If they continue using these trumped up charges against us… we shall not even apply for bail in the future,” Besigye said.

Rights groups condemned the arrests and called on police to drop charges against the opposition leaders.

Outrageous affront

“The stifling of this protest and the force used against the protesters is an outrageous affront to freedom of expression made possible by Uganda’s unjust ban on public rallies,” Godfrey Odongo, the Uganda researcher for Amnesty International, said in a statement Monday.

The US embassy in Uganda also expressed concern over the arrests and urged the government to “respect the opposition’s right to express its viewpoints.”

Besigye has been calling for mass protests since losing out to Museveni in the polls the opposition claimed were rigged.

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