UN rights chief decries ‘repressive tactics’ in Uganda ahead of vote • FRANCE 24 English

The Ugandan presidential election campaign is in full swing with the vote set to be held for the 15th of January. Eight candidates including President Yoer Musevveni and leading opposition figure Bobby Wine are vying for the country’s top job. However, on Wednesday, the United Nations decrieded an intensifying crackdown on the opposition with the UN High Commissioner of for Human Rights, Vular Turk, urging Ugandan authorities to end what he calls repressive tactics against them and the media. Our regional correspondent Juliet Moti reports. According to the UN, at least 550 members and ordinary supporters of the National Unity Platform, Bobby Wines’s party have been arrested in Uganda since the start of the year. Many remain behind bars facing charges ranging from public disorder to obstruction of justice. This is significant also because most of them were detained during the election campaign. A fact the opposition, especially Bobby Wine himself, has been loudly denouncing for weeks now. And there’s also the case of course of longtime opposition figure Kisa Big detained since last year, accused of pluting against the government. Beyond these arrests, the UN reports alleged disappearances and torture, repeated violations of press freedom along with the use of excessive force by security services. This comes after at least one person was killed during an opposition rally last week. These incidents have raised serious concerns of a possible repeat of the last presidential election in 2021. The UN reported at least 54 people were killed by security forces and the Ugandan opposition denounced a vote marred by irregularities.

The United Nations deplored Wednesday an intensifying crackdown on the opposition and media in Uganda ahead of next month’s general election, urging impartial investigations into alleged arbitrary arrests, disappearances and “torture”. The UN rights office highlighted “credible reports” indicating that at least 550 people, including members and supporters of the main opposition National Unity Platform party (NUP) and presidential candidate Bobi Wine, had been arrested and detained since the start of the year. More from FRANCE 24’s regional correspondent Juliette Montilly.
#Uganda #election #crackdown

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33 comments

  2. Don't get involved what's in African. We people from Ugandan if we come to Europe we're been treating very bad. Musevei is putting security in Ugandan. We don't won't Uganda to be like Somalia. And we don't won't Uganda to be like sudan. You whites people make money only whene there is war in African

  9. Uganda is under armed occupation by a despot,who organize half baked elections, whereby he is always declared the winner by his own controlled electoral commission.

  10. Leave issues of African politics to Africans
    You never find Africans interfering with issues of WESTERN COUNTRIES 🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️

    JUST LEAVE THEM ALONE

  18. Seriously these kinds of acts are happening in Ugandan because none has intervened
    Imagine an opposition leader being blocked to go to campaign by the military and police forces which gets command from those in power
    They say there’s democracy but I don’t see it here in Uganda

  29. UN use words and secure its interests, they can’t help ,, to all Ugandans this is our 1962 ,, it’s time to help ourselves otherwise we are going to be like our neighbors

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