Uganda’s riot police fired tear gas and a water cannon at opposition supporters gathering on Monday at the final pre-election rally for presidential candidate Kizza Besigye.
About 2 000 supporters had gathered in central Kampala, with riot police standing by. Young men in the crowd taunted the police, who responded with tear-gas grenades. The police took over the sports field and chased the opposition supporters away. The country’s first multiparty elections in 26 years are to be held on Thursday.
Human rights groups have accused the government of President Yoweri Museveni of harassing the opposition and preventing them from conducting an effective campaign ahead of elections in which he is expected to face the strongest challenge to his 20-year rule.
A police commander at the scene, who refused to give his name, said tear gas was fired to clear opposition supporters from the main road because they were hindering traffic.
However, the opposition parliamentary candidate for Kampala said this was a clear attempt from the government to prevent the rally from taking place.
”This is just sabotage,” Umah Tete Nelson said at the scene. ”They are scared of the popularity of Besigye.”
He also said police killed an opposition supporter earlier on Monday when they opened fire at an earlier Besigye rally in the capital, Kampala.
Museveni, at the last minute on Monday, called for a rally of his supporters at the same time as Besigye’s rally in the same neighbourhood, adding to an already tense situation in the capital. — Sapa-AP