Uganda Police Arrests Women Demonstrators

Police arrest members of IPC women's League

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NO ESCAPE: Police arrest one of the demonstrators at the Electoral Commission offices yesterday. PHOTO BY STEPHEN WANDERA

By Gerald Bareebe & Flavia Nalubega

IN SUMMARY

The women, who belong to opposition parties under the Inter-Party Cooperation, marched to the EC office to demand for the resignation of Commission Chairman Eng. Badru Kiggundu and his fellow commissioners.

Kampala

At least 33 opposition supporters – all of them women – were by last evening still under police custody after they tried to force their way into the Electoral Commission headquarters in Kampala.

The women, who belong to opposition parties under the Inter-Party Cooperation, marched to the EC office to demand for the resignation of Commission Chairman Eng. Badru Kiggundu and his fellow commissioners.
It was the first time a women’s group was mobilising against the embattled electoral commissioners who were reappointed last year despite widespread irregularities in the 2006 election which they oversaw.

Constitutional right?Opposition pleas 
The opposition has rejected the reappointment and the EC office in Kampala is heavily-guarded by the police after previous attempts by opposition youth wingers to demonstrate at the facility.
The police officers were, however, caught off-guard yesterday as the women emerged, one by one, from Centenary Park, opposite the EC office.
Clad in black T-shirts and carrying posters accusing Eng. Kiggundu and his team of seven commissioners of partisan tendencies, the women jumped a short wire fence, and sat under a tree near the EC gate.

“We have come here to express our dissatisfaction with Eng. Kiggundu and his team,” Ms Ingrid Turinawe, the chairperson of the FDC Women’s League and one of the demonstrators, said. “So, you cannot chase us from here because it is our constitutional right. We are not inciting violence but just want to articulate our grievances with EC as concerned women of Uganda.”

The women claimed that they had intended to deliver a petition to Eng. Kiggundu but Police armed with sniffer dogs, teargas and automatic rifles forcefully broke up the sit-down protest and arrested the demonstrators. The women were bundled onto police pick-up vehicles and whisked off to Jinja Road and Central Police stations.

Mr Wandera Ogalo, FDC’s secretary for legal affairs, accused Police of denying the women access to their lawyers. He said about 40 women had been arrested but IPC officials, who visited the women in police cells, saw only 35 women and that police could not reveal where the others were being held.

The Director of Police Operations, Mr Grace Turyagumanawe said yesterday that the women did not have permission to demonstrate at the EC office.
“These ladies wanted to enter EC offices yet no one was expecting visitors of this nature,” he said. “They came one-by-one, trespassed and sat in the grass. We tried to ask them kindly to leave but they refused so we deployed police women to get them away.” However, the police women deployed could not handle the demonstrating women and male officers were called in to assist in the arrest.

Besigye visits
FDC President Dr Kizza Besigye and other opposition officials visited the police stations where the detained demonstrators recounted their ordeal. “They forcefully loaded us on police vehicles like sacks of beans even when we had voluntarily accepted arrest,” a tearful Ms Turinawe said. “Some officers were undressing us and touching our thighs as they loaded us on their vehicles.”

Police said yesterday the women are likely to be charged with criminal trespass, unlawful assembly and inciting violence, even as Mr Ogalo petitioned the Law Council to investigate circumstances under which the suspects were allegedly denied access to their lawyers. A re-composition of the EC is one of several reforms that the opposition is demanding for ahead of elections next year.

Uganda Government censoring the Media

This is a clear indication of media censorship in what is supposed to be a democratic county!

The government is telling the media including News Papers, Radio and Television Stations what to say and not to say otherwise they face heavy fines or even closure such as is reported below to the extent of who is allowed to have stake in these enterprises.

See for your self....

U.S. Senator Calls For Investigation Of Alleged "Attempted Assassination" Of Otunnu , Uganda Opposition Figure

By Milton Allimadi

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has called for an investigation of a suspicious December automobile incident involving a leading opposition figure abroad after the Ugandan said he was the victim of an "attempted assassination."

Separately, the U.S. Department of State says it's also keeping an eye on the incident involving Olara Otunnu, a former United Nations Undersecretary General and now a prospective presidential candidate on the opposition ticket in the 2011 Ugandan elections.

A Ugandan foreign affairs minister denied there was an attempt to kill Otunnu.

On December 21, 2009, Otunnu reportedly narrowly avoided death when his car was forced off the road when, he says, vehicles belonging to President Yoweri K. Museveni's Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) suddenly veered in front of his car, after first giving his driver the okay to overtake the slow-moving military convoy. Museveni wasn't part of the convoy.

Otunnu was headed to Kampala , Uganda 's capital. Both he and Museveni had been at a religious ceremony in the city of Gulu the previous day. Otunnu returned to Uganda last year after 23 years in exile.

In a wide-ranging interview on The Voice of America 's "Straight Talk Africa," program on January 13, Otunnu said "There is no doubt in my mind that it was an attempted assassination," referring to the December 21, 2009, incident.

http://www.voanews. com/mp3/voa/ africa/engl/ straight. mp3

"The Congress is aware of that incident and it has been brought to the attention of the Obama Administration," said Tim Rieser, a foreign policy staffmember for Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee which funds U.S. foreign aid programs.

"Senator Leahy is concerned about it and believes it should be investigated."

A State Department spokesperson in a statement echoed Leahy's position: "We are aware of the reports that in December Olaro Otunno was involved in a car accident that may have occurred under suspicious circumstances. We take allegations of any attempt at political intimidation very seriously and have been monitoring the situation closely."

"While there are concerns about the progress of Uganda 's democratic development, we are working to support peaceful, free and fair elections in 2011," added the State Department spokesperson. "Our Embassy in Kampala has been working diligently for many months in preparation for these elections and will continue to do so in the coming months."

In an interview Otunnu welcomed the call by U.S. officials as well as from people within Uganda for an investigation of the December incident. "The Ugandan government must respond," he said, when asked how such an investigation could start.

Otunnu said the investigating entity, whether it is Ugandan, or an East African regional body, or an international organization, must be totally independent of the Ugandan government.

Uganda's foreign affairs minister for international relations, Oryem Henry Okello, denied that there was an assassination bid.

"I do not believe it was an attempted assassination," he said. "The government of Uganda has no intention of assassinating Olara Otunnu or anybody else for that matter." 

He said the incident was already being investigated by the police.

"All those who hope to participate in the political process, be it Olara Otunnu or others, are attempting to make statements trying to create some advantage or gain publicity," heading into the 2011 election, he said.

"We welcome the interest of the United States government and we welcome the interest of our friends around the world," he added. "We have to be very careful about such statements."

Since President Obama's Accra Speech last year, in which he called for a shift from one-man rule to democrat institutions in African countries, there's been some shift in U.S.-Africa policy, and in the case of Uganda , a notable one.

As reported by The Black Star News on Wednesday, the U.S. Congress has issued a directive as part of the 2010 appropriations bill calling on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to closely monitor the Uganda election, including the preparation, the independence of the Election Commission, the credibility and verifiability of the voter registry, posting of results at polling stations, freedom of movement and assembly, freedom of the media as well as the security of all candidates. What's more, she's to issue a report every four months and another 30 days after the election.

There are indications that U.S. patience with the Museveni government has worn thin.

"The Congress does not take sides in the election. It is up to the people of Uganda to decide who their president or representatives will be. But the United States does care that the electoral process is free and fair," Rieser, the aide to Senator Leahy, continued.

He said the incident involving Otunnu is illustrative of why the Congress included the directive calling for security and protection of candidates. (A State Department spokesperson wouldn't say if the Otunnu incident will be covered in Secretary Clinton's first report, in March, on the status of compliance with the directive).

He said the Ugandan government is aware of the Congress's concerns. Rieser said the Congressional directive was included because there is disappointment that the Ugandan government has not moved toward a multi-party democracy as many had hoped and expected.

"There was recognition that coming out of the disastrous Idi Amin and Milton Obote eras it would take some time for the country to recover and for democratic institutions to develop. But a long time has elapsed and people have become impatient," he added.

"Senator Leahy has visited Uganda and he has seen the progress that has been made. As chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that funds U.S. foreign aid programs, he has supported many hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for Uganda . But like others he wants real democracy to develop there. There is concern with reports that the government is limiting opportunities for political parties to organize."

Rieser continued: "Congress wants to see the media able to broadcast and publish freely, political parties able to operate without harassment or threats, and the balloting to be free and fair. By signaling its interest and requiring the Secretary of State to regularly report on these matters, the Congress is saying that it intends to follow this process closely."

When asked what would happen if the Secretary of State submitted a report showing shortcomings by the Uganda government in meeting the standards outlined in the directive, he said if there were credible evidence that the government was impeding the role of the media and political parties, then "we would convey those concerns" to the Ugandan government and the manner in which the election is conducted would have an impact on aid from the U.S.

Henry Okello, the Ugandan minister, rejected Leahy's position, saying Uganda has a vigorous multi-party system. He said Leahy was "misinformed and behind the times" because Uganda had several opposition parties, such as the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the Uganda People's Congress(UPC), and independent legislators, with opposition Members of Parliament.

"This is Africa . They should be patient," Henry Okello continued. "This is not America or Europe . We are on our way to where the United States and Europe are today."

The Black Star News has confirmed that Otunnu was a driving force behind the Congressional directive, which explains why the language is specifically tailored to address obstacles that opposition parties in Uganda have complained about in the past.

The Ugandan is said to have met several times with key U.S. lawmakers and after several presentations was able to help shift direction of a rigid foreign policy establishment. Any doubts amongst U.S. lawmakers were erased after the December 21 road incident in Uganda , people familiar with the matter say. Months before, Otunnu had stressed the need for the directive to cover the security and protection of all candidates.

US Directs Clinton to Monitor Uganda's 2011 Election

U.S. Congress directs Secretary of State Clinton to monitor Uganda's 2011 elections

[Global: Africa]

In what a key Ugandan opposition figure has hailed as a "milestone" the United States Congress has issued a directive to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to monitor next year's Ugandan presidential election to ensure that it's free and fair.

"This is big news and very welcome," said Olara A. Otunnu, former United Nations UndeSecretary General and now a Ugandan opposition leader. "This is hugely important. I am delighted and applaud the US Congress for taking this decisive action in favor of free and fair elections in Uganda."

The directive is included in the section dealing with Uganda in the U.S. Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010. It calls on Secretary Clinton to work with other countries, including the European Union and Canada, in monitoring preparations for the Ugandan elections, including: “the independence of the electoral commission; the need for an accurate and verifiable voter registry; the announcement and posting of results at the polling stations; the freedom of movement and assembly and a process free of intimidation; freedom of the media; and the security and protection of candidates.”General Yoweri K. Museveni has been in office since 1986.

“This is a milestone because for the first time the Museveni regime is being held to the same electoral standards as other governments, " Otunnu continued, in an interview. "Up till now, the regime has enjoyed scandalous exceptionalism, particularly from universally- accepted standards concerning democracy, human rights and corruption.”

"This is the beginning of the end of that impunity," he added. “The Congressional directive is of particular importance given the extensive and well documented rigging and fraud witnessed in recent elections in Uganda.”

Supporters of Dr. Kizza Besigye, opponent to Museveni, believe their candidate was robbed in the 2001 and 2006 presidential elections.

Additionally, the U.S. Congress directed Secretary Clinton to provide the first status report on the directive to monitor the elections in March 2010, and “every 120 days thereafter until 30 days after the election detailing actions taken by the government of Uganda to address these concerns.”

The State Department did not respond to inquiries for comment from Secretary Clinton by publication time. Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also couldn't be reached by publication deadline. Uganda's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda wasn't available for comment this evening.

In an interview on The Voice of America's "Straight Talk Africa" program today Otunnu for the first time spoke in the clearest terms about a December 21, 2009 incident when a vehicle he was travelling in was forced off the road in Uganda by military vehicles belonging to President  Museveni's Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB). The 12,000-strong tax-payer financed force is commanded by Museveni's son.

http://www.blacksta rnews.com/ news/135/ ARTICLE/6181/ 2009-12-28. html

"There is no doubt in my mind that it was an attempted assasination, " Otunnu said, in the VOA interview. In an Op-Ed column Otunnu wrote for The Daily Monitor, a Ugandan independent newspaper, Otunnu had called for an independent investigation of the incident. During the VOA interview today, he called on Secretary Clinton to similarly investigate the matter and include it in the status report called for in the Congressional directive.

http://www.voanews. com/mp3/voa/ africa/engl/ straight. mp3 

During the VOA interview Otunnu also welcomed the critical reaction by Western countries to the proposed bill in Uganda's parliament that would make homosexuality punishable by death but noted that the same International community had turned a blind eye to "genocide" in the northern part of the country. There, for more than two decades, the Uganda government had confined more than two million civilians in what Otunnu has called "concentration" camps. The Uganda government maintained that the camps were created to protect civilians from the Lord's Resistance Army, but in 2005 the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that more than 1,000 civilians died per week in the camps, or an estimated more than 52,000 annually.

http://www.usyd. edu.au/news/ 84.html?newsstor yid=764

The Black Star News has learned that Otunnu played a major role in pushing for the Congressional directive, through meetings with U.S. lawmakers as well as human rights and democracy activists in Washington, D.C.

Additionally, under the Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010, Uganda is allocated $70.6 million in assistance. Otunnu in an earlier interview on WBAI Pacifica Radio said Western governments didn't hold Museveni's government accountable on issues of corruption, human rights and good governance, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies.

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=xjnf6n5h8lY

http://www.blacksta rnews.com/ news/135/ ARTICLE/6207/ 2010-01-13. html

By Milton Allimadi