UGANDA: Uganda's opposition leader Kizza Besigye begins his presidential campaign a day after he was freed on bail by a Kampala court.

Record ID: 214644

  • Title: UGANDA: Uganda's opposition leader Kizza Besigye begins his presidential campaign a day after he was freed on bail by a Kampala court.
  • Date: 4th January 2006
  • Summary: CLOSE OF BESIGYE SPEAKING (NO TRANSCRIPT)
  • Embargoed: 19th January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Uganda
  • Country: Uganda
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACQRCLZ09SBK63FQSIFFU79MEO
  • Story Text: Top opposition presidential candidate Kizza Besigye resumed campaigning on Tuesday (January 3), the day after he was freed on bail from prison where he was held on charges he says were trumped up to knock him out of contention.
    Despite the prospect of re-arrest, President Yoweri Museveni's former ally and most credible opponent in the February 23 election immediately left to court voters in eastern Uganda.
    He still faces twin trials, one for treason and rape in the civilian High Court and another for weapons offences and terrorism in a military court-martial.
    Witnesses said he arrived in Kayunga, 50 km (30 miles) east of the capital, to start campaigning.
    Besigye's case has further dented Museveni's reputation as a model of a new African democratic leader, which took a hit last year after his allies removed a constitutional term limit that would have kept him from standing in the 2006 poll.
    Britain and other donors have withheld aid from the east African nation to show displeasure at his arrest and trial.
    A Ugandan High Court judge freed Besigye, 49, on bail on Monday and thousands of backers of his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party took to Kampala's streets to celebrate.
    But as they have at past rallies, police quickly fired tear gas to disperse them and beat others.
    Critics have said the raucous welcome Besigye received when he came home from four years' exile in South Africa in October may have shaken Museveni's sense of complacency.
    Besigye said he had asked the director of public prosecutions if there were any charges against him before he returned, and was told there were not.
    The government denies any motivation other than law enforcement, and Museveni said he relished the chance to beat Besigye at the polls once again.
    Once Museveni's personal physician, including during the guerrilla war that brought him to power in 1986, Besigye fled Uganda in August 2001 after losing a violence-marred election earlier that year.
    He said the government was trying to kill him after his challenge and fallout with Museveni, which started with a critical article in 1998.
    Besigye challenged Uganda's democratic credentials and accused the president of becoming the type of African autocrat he had often mocked.
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