UGANDA: Uganda police fire teargas to break up rally

Ugandan security forces fired gunshots and teargas to break up an opposition demonstration that paralysed the centre of the Ugandan capital Kampala on Saturday (January 6). Hundreds of Democratic Party (DP) supporters had earlier gathered in a central Kampala square to denounce the unsolved 1987 murder of former rebel leader Andrew Kayiira. But they were scattered by police and troops firing shots in the air, launching volleys of teargas canisters and spraying the crowds with water laced with irritant chemicals. The demonstrators hurled stones back, but no one was hurt. At least one DP supporter was arrested, witnesses said. One angry protester complained that every time the opposition held a meeting the police attacked them although they had a constitutional right to demonstrate "It's very bad, just giving out a report and the people having chance to give out their views and you just spread them like leaves, it is very, very bad," said a protester. "They have abused the people's right. People have freedoms to associate, to belong to political organisations," another protester said. Local police chief Grace Turyagumanawe told reporters the demonstrators had been warned in advance not to try to enter central Kampala and that they could assemble anywhere else. President Yoweri Museveni, who seized power in a coup a year before Kayiira's death, was once hailed as a new breed of African leader. But donors have become frustrated with what diplomats see as his increasingly autocratic style.

ITN Source | January 7, 2007

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