Rally turned violent in Kampala today

Several people died today in Kampala during what was intended to be a peaceful demonstration in favour of Mabira Forest. Sometimes things escalate fast, and today the ever so friendly Kampala simply went mad. The man behind the company who is to buy the piece of the forest is Indian, and apparently the rally took an unexpected direction and turned its anger into a manhunt for Indians or the ones who look like.

I was in a meeting all day and only heard of the riots around 11 am where one of my development worker colleagues explained how she got trapped in her red MS car the middle of the riots on her way to Nakesero Market. She is of Iranian origin so the mob took her for Indian. When you see others being stoned by a mad mob, pulled out of taxis, shops being looted, you do think 'to hell with a scratched car!' - and she made it out of there.

Others didn't. Some were stoned, some were shot at by the police and others were hit by cars.

Bloggers write their first hand impressions from Kampala here:

http://dying-communist.blogspot.com/2007/04/frig-us-all-for-riots.html

http://petesmama.wordpress.com/

http://kellyuganda.livejournal.com/93836.html

http://ernest-bazanye.blogspot.com/2007/04/tear-him-for-his-bad-verses-tear-him.html

And the Daily Monitor covers it here.

Comments

[p]

Hi Stephen,

There has been different incidents during April which turned violent. But I'd say nothing which has disturbed life out of the ordinary in Uganda in general. If you are not yourselves involved in issues related to the incidents, I see no need for worrying in particular. But of course that is always a personal assesment.

I am not capable of giving you a more detailed analisys of the situation - but have a look in the Ugandan on-line papers - you find them in the INSIDE UGANDA paragraph to the right. Or read Kelly's Uganda Journal - you find that, too, to the right - BLOG UGANDA!

Best greetings
Pernille

[Stephen Baker]

I'm flying out to Uganda on the 13th and can't seem to find anything about this on the web can you tell a little more about the seriousness and the scale of the unrest?