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Uganda protests European diplomats' visit to Besigye

Uganda protests European diplomats' visit to Besigye
By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters)
Tue 26 Apr. 2011, 21:00 CAT

Uganda accused Irish and Dutch diplomats of breaching rules to visit detained opposition leaders in jail and said some unnamed countries were funding the opposition to destabilise the country.

Kizza Besigye, runner-up to veteran President Yoweri Museveni in a February presidential election, was arrested last week as he walked to his workplace in protest against the soaring prices of food and fuel.

"They (diplomats) invited themselves to Nakasongola (prison) and through a process I am yet to find out, they got access to the prison but they were not authorized and they didn't get diplomatic clearance," Johnson Byabashaija, head of prisons, told a news conference on Tuesday.

Besigye has been charged with participating in an unlawful assembly and remanded to prison.

He is held with Nobert Mao, another former presidential contender and leader of the Democratic Party (DP), charged with inciting violence and assaulting a police officer.

Both leaders have been at the forefront of a 'walk-to-work' campaign aimed at forcing the government to take urgent measures to reduce soaring food and fuel prices.

The campaign triggered clashes between opposition supporters and the police in the capital, Kampala, and several other towns, in which at least five people were killed and scores injured.

Information Minister Kabakumba Matsiko told the same news conference that the government would convey its unhappiness with the European diplomats' behaviour through diplomatic channels.

Uganda had intelligence indicating that "foreign elements" were funding the opposition to cause trouble, he said.

"Foreigners are supporting the opposition... they're planning to destabilise Uganda and prevent the swearing-in ceremony," Matsiko said.

Museveni, in power since 1986, won a landslide victory with 68 percent of the vote and is due to be sworn in for a fourth elected term on May 12.

On Monday, the Daily Monitor newspaper quoted a senior government official Kintu Nyango as saying Besigye had received money from foreign sources to cause "unconstitutional regime change" in Uganda.

The government has attributed the spike in the cost of food to poor rains that depressed production and soaring retail fuel costs to high crude oil prices on global markets.

Labels: DEMOCRACY, UGANDA, YOWERI MUSEVENI

posted by MrK @ 6:15 PM