Apr 17, 2007, 14:34 GMT
Kampala - Ugandan Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of people in an opposition-led demonstration against the arrest of 32 people following a racist protest last week which left three people dead including an Indian.
Anti-riot police and the military broke up a demonstration by a coalition of opposition political parties in the capital Kampala against the arrest of two members of parliament who were among those arrested in connection with last week's protest which turned violent.
'We condemn the police for arresting the demonstrators. The government should apologize to Ugandans. Government should immediately release the members of parliament and the environmentalists,' a coalition of six opposition parties said in a statement Tuesday.
The two opposition MPs, Hussein Kyanjo and Beatrice Anywar were among the 32 people arrested following anti-Asian riots last Thursday. The executive director of Uganda's main environmental lobby group, Frank Muramuzi, was also detained.
'They have been charged by police with two counts, one of them is incitement to commit murder and the other is incitement to cause violence,' the MPs' lawyer Yusuf Nsibambi told reporters.
The legislators were to appear in court Tuesday.
Last Thursday's demonstration was called to oppose a government plan to axe part of the country's largest forest reserve to pave way for an expansion of an Asian-owned sugar plantation.
Police used tear gas and live bullets to disperse the rioters who turned on the Asians, attacked them, looted some of their shops and stoned an Indian to death.
Two other people died in the fracas including one shot by a security guard.
Uganda has had a troubled relationship with its Asian community since former military dictator Idi Amin used them as a scapegoat for his country's woes and banished them in the 1970s. Many returned in the early nineties.
East Africa has a sizable Indian community, which was brought to the region by British colonialists in the late 19th century and remained, becoming a driving force behind the East African economy.
The Asians who had closed their premises and sought police protection during the riot, reopened their businesses over the weekend, but by Tuesday had shut down again.
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otApr 17th, 2007 - 15:02:17
i think the violence should stop. iam scared to death!
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