Ugandan opposition leader Besigye arrested, charged with treason

[lebkuchen]

Prosecutors have charged Uganda's main opposition leader with treason for trying to topple the government, a senior police official said on Monday.

"The director of public prosecutions has sanctioned that Dr Kizza Besigye be charged with treason under Section 23 of the penal code," Major-General Kale Kayhura, inspector general of police, told a news conference.

"Dr Besigye together with 22 others are accused of plotting to overthrow the government of Uganda by force of arms," he said.

The charges and Besigye's arrest came less than three weeks after he returned to Uganda ending four years of exile in South Africa.

If found guilty, Besigye could face the death penalty.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=qw1131980953914B225

There is very little of this on the web, incredibly, but my Ugandan friend just got an e-mail an hour ago from his family saying that since Besigye's arrest, there is rioting in the streets, fires set, bullets flying, and tear gas used against protesters. According to my friend, Besigye attempted to run in an election against President Yoweri Museveni four years ago and was forced to flea Uganda as a result. Museveni has held power for 20 years. My friend says the Uganda people are poor, that Museveni has been stealing from the people, and they want someone new in power. Besigye had returned to run against Museveni again in an election, and now he's been arrested.

Where is Bush? Where is our military to promote democracy in Uganda??

[Gildor Inglorion]

1. Where's Uganda's vast petroleum reserves?

To the B*shit administration, democracy = petrodollars. Nothing in it for the plutocrats, so why waste our time & effort promoting democracy (or anything else) in Uganda?

[lebkuchen]

2. We have troops throughout the African continent right now

...makes me wonder what part the US is playing to keep dictator Museveni in power. Besigye used to be Museveni's doctor, and now he's facing the death penalty for wanting to be a candidate in an election to dethrone a guy who has been there 20 years.

Again I ask, where is macho Bush and his mighty military to democracy's rescue?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4435490.stm

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been arrested three weeks after he returned home from four years in exile.
Dr Besigye was charged with treason, as well as the alleged rape of a woman in 1997. Mr Besigye denies alleged links to two rebel groups.

His arrest sparked running battles between his supporters and the police, who used tear gas and live bullets.

Dr Besigye is seen as the strongest challenger to President Yoweri Museveni in elections due next March.

He was arrested after addressing a rally just outside the capital, Kampala before being escorted to a police station in the centre of the city.

Suleiman Kiggundu, chairman of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), which is sponsoring Dr Besigye in the election, condemned the arrest.

"This is a barbaric act that we are witnessing. This is a savage act," he told the AFP news agency.

"We are not going to take this taking lying down. We are also going to use all means, political, legal and any other," he said. "We are going organise people to demonstrate against this."

Once Mr Museveni's doctor, Dr Besigye ran against the president in 2001 before fleeing, saying his life was in danger.

On his return to Uganda last month, Mr Besigye told reporters that the time was right to return and take on what he termed "the dictatorship".

[lebkuchen]

3. US media focused on boy kills girls parents but not the demise of

democracy in Uganda during a time of war, the US v. Iraq, the supposed purpose to bring democracy to Iraq? Where is the Bush administration's outrage over the arrest of the Ugandan doctor who would simply like to run for election???

Here's a BBC article on Besigye: Home and ready to run

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4377858.stm

[lebkuchen]

4. If the media doesn't report it, it doesn't exist

CNNI isn't reporting the unrest in Uganda either, and this is a network that advertises its own segment on Africa, "Inside Africa," constantly. Guess Uganda doesn't count when the issue has to do with the undermining of democracy, even though that's why Bush says we're in Iraq.

Gotta keep the real democracy struggles hush hush since democracy is what the Bush administration is secretly hoping to upend, everywhere.