KAMPALA, Uganda - figurehead opposition here was arrested Monday and charged with incitement to violence, as a third day of street protests in the capital of Uganda has ended in the shrouds of tear gas and rubber bullets.
"Walk to work" protests are a campaign against the spirals of fuel and food prices led by the former candidate to the Presidency, Kizza Besigye.
Despite the meagre size of protests - rarely numbering more than a few hundred people in a country more $ 30 million - they got an overwhelming response by the security forces Government, sending tear gas through a crowd of spectators and dormitories of the University. Demonstrators were beaten and fired on, raise more political tensions.
Mr. Besigye was dragged on the back of a pickup truck by several police officers Monday, his right hand in a sling after be slaughtered by the military police with a Thursday rubber bullet, and a distribution on the second day of the walk to the work of the demonstrations. Demonstration on Monday was the third at the time where the riots broke out in a number of universities in Kampala.
A spokesman of the police, Judith Nabakooba, said the protests in Kampala had dissipated by the beginning of the afternoon and 98 people, including the leading political figures, have been arrested.
"The situation has been limited," said agent Nabakooba. She also said there were demonstrations in the nearby town of Jinja, on the Nile, but those too had been pacified.
Mr. Besigye, who won just over 20% of the vote in February, vowed earlier this month that he could walk at his home on the outskirts of Kampala from the town centre every Monday and Thursday to raise attention to the high prices of the products that he said are stimulated by the corruption of the Government.
Mr. unexpected cited Besigye a supplementary budget of 250 million just before the February elections, the recent secret fighter acquisition Russian for about $ 750 million, as well as lucrative but oil contracts signed by the Government after the discoveries of oil wells in the West of the country.
Mr. Besigye vowed on Monday that he could walk to work again on Thursday.
On Saturday, President Yoweri Museveni said that Uganda should not complain about the increase in food prices, and that the Government would crush any demonstration, including walking to work the movement.
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