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| A Ugandan policeman chases a man who was among the well wishers gathered to welcome opposition leader Kizza Besigye back to Uganda yesterday. Inset: President Museveni attends his swearing-in |
Besigye arrived home yesterday from hospital in Kenya, hours before Museveni was due to be inaugurated to extend his rule to three decades.
Standing through the sun-roof of a car, Besigye and his wife Winnie waved to several thousand ululating supporters who made V for victory signs amid a heavy security presence along the road leading to Kampala, a Reuters witness said.
Besigye and his supporters have staged a series of protests against rising prices in recent weeks.
Besigye’s supporters fled as police also used water canon to scatter them and military police used heavy sticks to beat them, but they later re-grouped and continued their march to the capital where Museveni was being inaugurated.
“They have teargassed them and they are beating them up, people are being whipped,” said Anne Mugisha, deputy foreign secretary for Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change.
“If this can be done in front of visiting heads of state and dignitaries then it is obvious that they don’t care even about international opinion anymore.”
Museveni secured a comfortable election win in February which Besigye, the veteran leader’s closest opponent, said was rigged. Besigye and other opposition leaders have refused to recognise Museveni as president.
An hour’s drive away in Kampala, television showed Museveni sitting calmly, giving a thumbs up, as the leaders of Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and South Sudan rolled up for the ceremony.
Besigye has been arrested four times since protests over high fuel and food prices began in April. He had gone to the Kenyan capital Nairobi for medical treatment after being wounded when police detained him two weeks ago.
Museveni, in power for 25 years, has promised to crush the protests, blaming the rising food and fuel costs on drought and global increases in crude oil prices.
In his speech after being sworn-in, Museveni accused others of being desperate for power and resorting to disruptive schemes. “Those disruptive schemes will be defeated,” he said.
Fresh from an emphatic poll win, Museveni has picked a fight with Besigye, confident donors will not criticise his tactics too much because Ugandan troops form the backbone of an African peacekeeping force in Somalia, analysts say.
“Museveni knows that as unpalatable as the actions of his regime may be, the donor states cannot afford to turn on him as long as he spares them having to deal with Somalia themselves,” said J. Peter Pham, Africa analyst at the Atlantic Council.
Other regional experts said Museveni, widely regarded as an astute political leader, would be wary of alarming foreign investors developing the east African country’s oil reserves.
“Uganda’s energy sector is still in an infant stage ... that Museveni must recognise. He is a strong leader who isn’t afraid to govern as he sees fit,” said Stratfor’s Mark Schroeder.
Uganda struck oil on its western border with Congo in 2006 and commercial production is expected in 2012, bringing a flow of cash that Museveni promised will be used to transform his poverty-stricken country to a middle-income state by 2016.
Besigye was Museveni’s doctor during the guerrilla war that swept the rebel leader to power in 1986, but the two fell out and have been rivals ever since.
Besigye is expected to hold a prayer meeting with other opposition members in the capital yesterday. “I think most of the time I will be at home. There are no special plans. We intend to have a prayer (session) for our country which I will take part in,” Besigye said before boarding the flight from Kenya.