Uganda opposition leader taken into police custody

After Besigye’s arrest, his supporters took to the streets.

The United States has criticised the handling of Uganda’s disputed presidential election and raised concerns about the house arrest of an opposition leader who failed to end President Yoweri Museveni’s 30-year rule.

Besigye, who has been arrested multiple times in the past week and was later put under house arrest, has alleged massive vote rigging and called the results fraudulent.

Police said on Monday they believed Mr Besigye was preparing to lead supporters to the electoral commission to collect the official results, and had not obtained proper consent.

The US State Department Deputy spokesperson, Mark Toner said they are concerned by Besigye’s continued house arrest and the shutting down of social media in the country.

The election commission announced Saturday that long-time President Yoweri Museveni won the vote with more than 60 percent of the ballots, while Besigye got 35 percent.

Violence erupted in the capital Kampala on Friday, a day after the presidential and parliamentary elections, when police stormed Besigye’s party offices, arrested him with several others and charged him with illegally running a parallel vote-counting centre.

“I don’t think it’s going to translate into longer-term criticism of the Museveni government, or any kind of significant shift in how donors interact with that country”, she said. Besigye has since denied the results from being valid and has been calling for an independent audit into the results, to be conducted by members from the worldwide community.

According to the AP report, Besigye was thrown into a van by officials and was taken to an unknown location while a security agent in plain clothes used pepper spray on a journalist.

“Wherever I went during the campaigns, people told me about their annoyances and these included corruption”.

“Besigye can not be allowed to disturb our peace”, Museveni said.

Museveni said he told Kerry “not to worry” about Uganda’s election and dismissed European Union accusations that electoral commission had favoured him and his National Resistance Movement (NRM). “I don’t need lectures from anybody”.

We therefore urge Dr. Kiiza Besigye to respect the law as well as the rights of the parents, their children and the travelling public. He is a key US ally on security matters, especially in Somalia.

Museveni gained control of Uganda by force in 1986 and got the country out of chaos after a guerilla war.