Uganda's opposition leader charged after Monday's protests

Apr 11, 2011, 17:34 GMT

Kampala - Uganda's main opposition leader who led Monday's protests against high fuel prices, was late afternoon charged in a Kampala court and released on bail, the chief of the police told reporters.

Ugandan police had fired live bullets and tear gas to disperse hundreds of people who had staged peaceful marches around the capital to protest high fuel prices.

Retired army colonel Kizza Besigye, who was the run-up in the February 18th presidential elections, led the protests that turned violent in several suburbs around the capital Kampala.

Nineteen other people, mostly opposition members of parliament and the leader of the country's oldest party, the Democratic Party were also arrested and are on their way to court, the inspector general of police major general Kale Kaihura told a news briefing.

He said that Besigye was charged with inciting violence, failing to comply with traffic laws and blocking a road but was later released on bail.

The opposition last week called upon people for a 'walk to work' match to Kampala in protest against the rise in the price of fuel and other essential commodities but police said the protests were illegal and swiftly moved in to stop the people from reaching the city center.

Besigye who got 26 per-cent of the votes in the country's forth multi-party elections claims that the polls were rigged in favor of the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni.

Besigye, a former army colonel who has run against Museveni in the previous three polls, was last arrested shortly before the 2006 elections, causing days of bloody riots around the city in which several dozen people died and scores of others injured.

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