Police disperse opposition demonstration

Police on Tuesday used tear gas and water cannons to disperse dozens of demonstrators in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, who had taken to the streets to protest against a plan to amend the constitution to remove presidential term limits. The protestors claimed the plan was intended to allow President Yoweri Museveni to seek another five-year term in office. They carried placards and banners denouncing the proposal by some members of parliament to remove a clause in the constitution that limits the president's tenure to two five-year terms, ahead of elections in 2006. Under the current constitution, Museveni, who seized power in 1986 after waging a five-year guerrilla war against previous regimes, cannot run again because he would have served two terms as an elected president. Kampala police chief Benson Oyo Nyeko said the organisers had defied a police order not to stage the demonstration. "They wrote to us yesterday [Monday] asking for permission to hold a demonstration," Nyeko added. "The permission was not granted but they insisted on going ahead, so we had to stop them as they marched towards parliament," he said. The police had cordoned off the Constitutional Square in the city centre from where the organisers of the demonstration planned to start a procession on Tuesday, the day parliament was expected to end its debate on the amendment. The organisers, however, convened in another part of the city before beginning their march towards parliament. "Several of our youth have been arrested and I am now going to the police to plead for their immediate release," Olivia Kamya, an official of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change party, said. "We shall not stop," Kamya added. "We shall either die, be beaten up and maimed or we shall be free." One placard read: "Uganda is destined for doom if Museveni is to be allowed to stand again." MPs opposed to the constitutional amendment are outnumbered in the 300-member parliament, but they have dominated debate. "You are going to open doors for the military option of getting to State House," Odonga Otto, an opposition MP, warned during the debate. Local government minister Tarsis Kabwegyere said, however, that there was no reason to worry as democracy had been entrenched in Ugandan politics. "Under this government, we have entrenched democracy, weakening the routes of dictatorship," he said. Museveni has not openly declared his intention to run for a third term. However, several senior government officials - believed to be closely allied to the president - are leading the controversial parliamentary campaign to lift the limit on presidential terms.