THERES A Gadafy quality to Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni’s excuses and an Arab Spring flavour to the protests that are shaking Kampala and in which at least 10 people have died at the hands of soldiers in recent weeks. Museveni insists “drug dealers” are to blame for the biggest outbreak of civil unrest in sub-Saharan Africa this year. He promises to “end this criminality” and complains that “weaknesses in the existing laws, too much laxity by elements of the judiciary and the police allow all this indiscipline and criminality to persist”.
Now he has turned his attention to the messenger, the international media, in a drive that – according to Reporters without Borders – saw 10 journalists assaulted by soldiers last week as they covered the return to the country of opposition leader Kizza Besigye who is now under house arrest. Information minister Kabakumba Masiko says new laws will deal with any journalist who becomes an “enemy of the state”, accusing the BBC and al Jazeera, among others, of siding with the opposition.
The demonstrations over corruption, high fuel and food prices have been fanned by repeated arrests of Besigye. They have been crushed by security forces.
Following his February 18th re-election, Museveni was last week inaugurated for a fourth term to extend his 25-year rule. He came to power in 1986 following years of misrule under Milton Obote and Idi Amin and was initially seen as one of the new faces of a reforming, democratic Africa. But he has faced rising criticism in recent years from human rights groups and NGOs over increasingly repressive means. His comfortable re-election was tarnished by credible opposition claims of vote rigging.
Uganda remains an important recipient of aid from Ireland which has in the past pressed Museveni, who once said Africa’s biggest problem was “leaders who want to overstay in power”, over rights abuses. It is crucial that in the face of clear evidence of escalating repression, the donor countries unite to insist on a return to democratic values.