The response by Ugandan police to rioting in the capital Kampala last week was unwarranted, an influential rights group said.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it had received reports of police going house-to-house and removing people from their homes, and witnessed truckloads of unarmed men being beaten.
“We have been very concerned about police brutality, the police response, the use of live ammunition, for example, in situations which didn’t warrant it [and] severe beatings of men who were not armed,” HRW researcher Maria Burnett said.
Violence broke out in Kampala on Thursday, triggered by land and power disputes between the government and leaders of Buganda — one of the east African country’s four ancient kingdoms.
The king of Buganda was due to attend a celebration in a town east of Kampala on Saturday. On Thursday, security forces stopped his officials visiting the area to prepare the ground and the king canceled his trip late on Friday after the riots.
At least 14 people died, including a member of the security forces, and scores were injured in three days of clashes in the center and outlying districts.
Kampala was quiet on Sunday.
Government spokesman Daudi Migereko said on Sunday there was a team on the ground taking note of the casualties.
“I want to state once again that as government we regret any loss of life and property and I wish to register, on behalf of government, condolences ... to the families that have lost their innocent dear ones,” he told reporters.
Police chief Kale Kayihura told reporters on Saturday that security forces had arrested 550 suspects during the unrest.
He said that some officers had overreacted after coming under attack early on Saturday in some districts of the capital.
“The thugs pelted the officers with stones and other missiles, and some officers, apparently, overreacted by opening fire in a bid to disperse the criminal gangs,” he said.
East Africa’s third biggest economy has been hailed for its political and economic stability over the last two decades following years of civil war during the 1970s and 1980s.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been admired for fiscal reforms and poverty alleviation, but critics, including some Western donors, accuse him of rights abuses and repression.
“The government is committed to resolving issues of contention through discussion, dialogue and constitutional arrangements,” said Migereko, adding that the Buganda king was now prepared to sit down and hold talks with Museveni.
Burnett said the Ugandan police had a history of using heavy force to quell unrest.
In April, HRW said Uganda’s anti-terrorism unit had unlawfully detained more than 100 people over the past two years and tortured 25 suspects.
It said four died from their injuries.
“We have always been concerned here in Uganda about the problem of both police brutality, but also the use of torture and detention as a tactic to crack down on free speech and journalism,” Burnett said.
The government took four local stations off the air after the police chief said “sectarian” radio broadcasts had fanned the violence.
The Ugandan Broadcasting Council also ordered that several prominent talk shows on radio and TV be suspended.
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
FORUM: The Solomon Islands’ move to bar Taiwan, the US and others from the Pacific Islands Forum has sparked criticism that Beijing’s influence was behind the decision Tuvaluan Prime Minister Feletei Teo said his country might pull out of the region’s top political meeting next month, after host nation Solomon Islands moved to block all external partners — including China, the US and Taiwan — from attending. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ meeting is to be held in Honiara in September. On Thursday last week, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele told parliament that no dialogue partners would be invited to the annual gathering. Countries outside the Pacific, known as “dialogue partners,” have attended the forum since 1989, to work with Pacific leaders and contribute to discussions around
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
RSS