Protestors opposed to 3rd presidential term arrested

Seventeen demonstrators, protesting proposals that would allow Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to seek a third term, were arrested in the capital Kamapala on Thursday. "People staged a demonstration which was stopped by police," Asuman Mugenyi, a police spokesman, told IRIN on Thursday. "They knew that we had stopped it, but they continued inciting people to come and participate in violence and in an illegal assembly." Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. The protest was against proposed changes to the constitution, currently before parliament, which would lift the current two-term presidential limit and replace it with no restrictions on standing for re-election. Such a move would make it possible for Museveni to stand for a third five-year term when his current one expires in 2006. "We have to stop this dictatorship from taking root in Uganda," Karim Mwanje, one of the demonstrators, told IRIN. "Museveni is a dictator and he wants to rule for life. If [former President Idi] Amin was resisted, Museveni also has to be resisted." According to the police, an unknown number of people were injured, and 17 were arrested. Law-enforcement officers, some in riot gear and others toting rifles, were escorted by trucks fitted with automated tear-gas nozzles and water cannons. They dispersed a group of about 100 demonstrators in the city centre, engaging in running battles with them before loading several onto trucks and taking them to a nearby police station. Oyo Nyeko, the area police commander, told IRIN that those arrested would be charged with participating in an illegal assembly. A newly formed pressure group, Force for Change, organised the demonstration. The group is jointly headed by a former mayor of Kampala, Nasser Sebaggala, and a former head of Uganda’s external intelligence agency, David Pulkol, among others. Thursday’s demo follows two other rallies that took place in the capital last week - one in favour of a third term for Museveni, and one against. Both rallies had obtained the relevant permission, and took place without interference from the police. Museveni, who has been president since he came to power in a military coup in 1986, has not openly declared his intention to seek a third term. However, several senior government officials, believed to be closely allied to the president, are leading the controversial parliamentary crusade to lift the constitutional presidential-term limit.