Clashes in Masaka walk-to-work plans as Besigye rules out taking more actions

CLOSE WATCH: Police officers trail Dr Besigye and Mr Mafabi’s cars in Masaka yesterday. PHOTO BY JOSEPH

 Police yesterday afternoon opened fire and unleashed teargas to disperse a huge crowd of civilians gathered in Masaka town to see opposition politicians launch a second round of protests against the rising cost living.

Mourning the dead
Riot and regular police had unsuccessfully failed to prevent the surging masses from gaining entry into the stadium at Kasana, Nyendo Ssenyange Division of the municipality where Forum for Democratic Change leader Kizza Besigye addressed them.

But as Dr Besigye, joined by scores of people, left the stadium in a procession towards the Total filling station near where two-year-old Julian Nalwanga was shot dead during the April walk-to-work protests, the police swung into action near Leo Junior School.

Teargas canisters were lobbed into the crowd as the police beat up people indiscriminately. Other security personnel opened automatic rifle fire. Dr Besigye was forced to abandon his plans as the evening drew on and police and other operatives dressed in military uniform remained adamant in stopping any further activities from taking place. At about 7.30pm, Dr Besigye set off for Kampala, with police patrol vehicles and a holding van on his tracks.

At the rally organised by Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga under the Activists 4 Change (A4C) pressure group, Dr Besigye was joined by Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Nandala Mafabi and other politicians. He told the crowd “they have been telling you Besigye is using you when for him he is rich. Yes, I am rich and my father was rich. My problem is stealing and you will not find stolen money on my bank account.”

‘Paranoia in NRM’
Dr Besigye chided the ruling NRM party for what he said was its paranoia over the people’s protests and applauded Masaka community for being brave.
“When I visited you at election time I was not joking when I said I will be based here to liberate the country. I am now back to inform you that after mourning our colleagues who died and those who lost their dear ones, we have to start again,” he said.

He said people
have been asking him to use the gun to overthrow Museveni but he has told them the gun will not cause the desired change. “We could get the guns, and we know how to use them, but if we do that then we will need to use the guns to keep ourselves in power,” Dr Besigye said.

The opposition leader drew the crowd’s attention to President Museveni’s recent comments when he visited Rwanda that Uganda is full of thieves. “Of course, there are so many thieves surrounding him.

They not only steal money, they also steal votes. We told them that if in the last election they cheated we would never go to the courts again. We said we would bring the case before the whole lot of you, the 34 million citizens of Uganda. And it is that effort that we are here to launch today. Whatever A4C leaders tell us to do from today we shall do.”

He ridiculed the purchase of fighter jets, saying even Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak had hundreds of jets but failed to use them.
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Price protesters are terrorists, says government

Kampala

Hours after a second round of protests against the rising cost of living was launched, the government on Wednesday reportedly labelled sections of the opposition as terrorists.

And yesterday, the country’s leadership promised to take stern action against anyone breaking the law under the guise of exercising the right to demonstrate over the current economic crisis. But Opposition leaders quickly responded and denied that they are plotting mass insurrection as alleged by the government, and said they will not be intimidated.

Grand plan?
They also promised to continue their protests until the authorities address the problems facing Ugandans. Security Minister Muruli Mukasa told reporters during a mid-morning briefing in Kampala that the opposition is pursuing a grand plan of inciting the public to rise against the ruling NRM government, a claim Opposition lawmakers who talked to Daily Monitor described as “empty talk”. “Nobody is going to intimidate us. What the government needs to do is to address the problems facing our economy and stop the blame game,” Shadow Attorney General Abdul Katuntu said.

“There is nobody preparing Ugandans for an uprising, but if [current] conditions prevail the people will stand up. It’s up to the government to make sure that such conditions don’t prevail. Those people in government must address the problems in the country, ensure that there is democracy, stop mismanagement of public funds and promote good governance,” he said.

The security minister’s warning came 24 hours after a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday reportedly resolved that “government associates Besigye, his people and their actions as terrorists”, according to sources who attended the meeting.

Cabinet also reportedly agreed to launch a nationwide campaign to sensitise the masses about what is going on with the economy to counter what they called the “lies” being spread by opposition leader Kizza Besigye. “We also agreed that all people involved in such actions be arrested and jailed,” Daily Monitor sources said of the Wednesday meeting.

Mr Mukasa said the opposition is portraying the government as illegitimate, claiming the NRM rigged the February 18 general elections, and as such is opportunistically pressing for power-sharing. “The opposition is hoodwinking the public to believe that [their] agitation is in public interest and that the government is insensitive to the public concerns.

They are doing this by mobilising demonstrations around genuine issues of public concern such as increased fuel and commodity prices, demand for salary increments, power blackouts and high tariffs etc,” Mr Mukasa said.

Psychological preparation
Without providing specific evidence, the minister said the opposition, using social media networks like twitter, facebook and YouTube is psychologically preparing the masses, especially the youth, for armed insurrection.

This claim, however, flies in the face of Dr Besigye’s repetition of his earlier rejection of taking up arms against the government when he addressed a rally in Masaka on the same day Cabinet met to discuss the resumption of protests against the rising cost of living.

The minister also suggested that, through its political actions, the opposition is disrupting the economy by paralysing trade and tourism, scaring away investors, discouraging remittances by Ugandans working abroad, paralysing social service delivery and threatening the oil and gas industry. The government has also accused the opposition of provoking security agencies and portraying the government as brutal in its action against demonstrations by citizens.

In reference to the Light-a-Candle Campaign initiated by the opposition to commemorate the death of 10 Ugandans shot and killed by the police and other security personnel during the April walk-to-work protests, Mr Mukasa said: “Current intelligence reports show that those opportunistic elements have launched phase II of their disruptive activities starting with Masaka and later spreading to other areas, including Kampala, Jinja, Mbale and Kasese.” “Government will not hesitate to take stern action against anyone who breaks law under the guise of the right to demonstrate.”

Shadow Internal Affairs Minister Hussein Kyanjo asked his counterpart to go slow and reiterated that the opposition will not be threatened by government statements. “We have a duty to represent the views of our people. We cannot sit back when the rest of Ugandans are sleeping on empty stomachs.

When those in government disagreed with those who were government of the time, they chose to go to the bush [in 1980], our option is the streets. The public discontent means there is a problem. The problem is the economy but those in government think the problem is the opposition which is wrong.”

Right to demonstrate
While the government has vowed to crackdown on demonstrators, Articles 29 and 43 of the Constitution explicitly grant citizens the right to demonstrate among other freedoms also enshrined under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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