WUNRN
|
09/15/09 |
By Rebecca Harshbarger |
Rioters
attacked and stripped about 20 Ugandan women who were wearing trousers last
week during deadly riots in |
The
men, in Rubaga, a Women wearing skirts were allowed to pass, Nabakooba said, but those wearing trousers were forcibly undressed and left to walk home in their underwear. The abuse occurred amid violence in the Ugandan capital, which officials say has claimed 14 lives and injured about 70. Women's rights advocate Jackie Asiimwe denounced the rioters for using the clash to abuse women and commit criminal acts in New Vision, a Kampala-based newspaper. "It is an invasion of women's privacy," the newspaper quoted Asiimwe as saying. Trousers a Western Thing "Traditionally,
trousers are not acceptable and are a Western thing," Rizzan Nassuna, a
writer and human rights advocate in In
neighboring Nassuna,
however, said she doubted any direct connection between the two incidents.
Instead, she viewed the attack on women wearing pants as a byproduct of a
larger effort by protesters to assert the customs of their The
riots were sparked on September 10 when the Ugandan government blocked an
advance team for the Kabaka, the king of the
The
inspector general of police, Major General Kale Kayihura, said in a press
conference on September 12 that the clashes spread from the city center to
more than 11 suburbs of Kayihura said that the police had arrested 550 people since Thursday and charged 83. "Investigations are still on," he said at the press conference. Some Unnecessary Force Used He
said some police officers had used unnecessary force after they were
instructed by their commanders and the Ugandan president to kill looters on
sight. "I know that some police officers mistreated civilians during the
riots," said Kayihura. "This should stop immediately." Two minority ethnic groups in Kayunga, the Banyala and Baluuli, have been demanding this month to secede from the kingdom to establish cultural autonomy. On
September 9, President Yoweri Museveni, citing fears that the king's visit
might trigger violence in the district, said that the Kabaka could not visit
Kayunga unless leaders from the minority groups, In
the ensuing violent backlash to that decision, a mob burned two people to
death in the suburb of Ndeeba on September 10. One woman was almost lynched
by a mob in Namirembe, a neighborhood in Justine
Busulwa, an accountant who works in She
said in an interview that when news of the riots first broke last week her
boss initially locked the office to protect the workers. She eventually left
her office late and had a motorbike driver take her home to avoid using
public transport. On her way home, she passed through Wandegaya, a A Ugandan soldier stopped her, but rather than protecting her, she said he asked her to lie down on the ground and began taunting her for not being a Muganda, or member of the kingdom, even though she belongs to that ethnic group. Mob Begins Harassment After begging for the release of her driver and herself, the soldier let her go. But then Busulwa said she was stopped by a mob that had formed in another section of the city, which began harassing her. She said she only got away by giving the rioters money. "I was almost killed," Busulwa said. "My son came home at midnight when the riots almost reached his university, too afraid to stay in his hostel." She waited until Sunday before entering town again. The
government called on the police, military and the Presidential Guard, raising
hope that the violence would be curbed. But gunfire began in Although
the riots subsided somewhat on Saturday, gunshots were still audible
throughout the city. The crisis could be one of the biggest tests of Museveni's career. The
president, an ethnic Ankole from southwestern Although praised initially for his regime's efforts to both empower women and reinstate the cultural kingdoms, his government has clashed with Buganda officials in recent years over land issues in Kampala, positioned at the heart of the traditional kingdom. Museveni said he has tried to communicate with the Kabaka for the past two years, but the cultural leader refused to take his phone calls. "Whenever
any controversy came up, I would telephone His Highness, the Kabaka, but he
would not answer my telephone as usual," said Museveni, who took a hard
line against rioters harassing and humiliating civilians, in a press
statement. "The ring leaders are being hunted down and some have been
arrested. Looters will be shot on sight, as will those who attack other
civilians." |
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