----- Original Message ----- 
From: gook makanga 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 12:03 AM
Subject: Riot at MUK 


Riot at MUK 
By Alex B. Atuhaire, Halima Abdallah, & Mercy Nalugo 
Oct 9, 2003

      MAKERERE - The police and students of Makerere University are as comfortable together as two co-wives in the same bed.

      And yesterday - on the eve of Uganda's 41st Independence Day anniversary - they fought running battles after a public debate was cancelled.

      The debate - organised by a new political pressure group called the Popular Resistance Against Life Presidency - had been called to discuss the proposed lifting of the presidential term limits.

      But an hour after it began - at 4 p.m. - anti-riot policemen drove into the university campus in a convoy of pick-up trucks. 

           
      About 25 anti-riot policemen wielding teargas canisters jumped off the pick-ups trucks and took up position between Mary Stuart and Lumumba halls of residence. The cops had also brought out two water trucks - the type that fights riots, not fires - which had made their fighting debuts in September 2002 when they broke up a fight between MUK and Makerere University Business School students after a football match at the main pitch a few metres from the two halls.

      Water first

      Thick torrents of water both hot and cold, according to students, erupted from the trucks directed at the students inside the hall.

      According to Ms Rosbell Kagumire, a second year mass communication student, the police action "took the gathering by surprise".

      The students abandoned the debate, which was taking place at the Lumumba terrace, and locked the gate to the hall.

      Then the cops lobbed teargas canisters at the students, their acrid fumes quickly filling the leafy and hilly campus.

      The students - with an air of been there, seen that - quickly dipped handkerchiefs and shirts into water and held them to their noses and eyes to keep the fumes away.

      With the terrace becoming a literal Waterloo for the students, many of them disappeared into their rooms or fled the hall altogether using side exits.
      MP Aggrey Awori, who had been invited to speak at the debate, was one of those who made a quick get-away.

      Some male students - perhaps taking advantage of their predicament - rushed into the Mary Stuart, a residential hall for women.

      The anti-riot police, commanded by Deputy Regional Police Commander Henry Tukahirwa, then retreated to the School of Education, about 200 metres from Mary Stuart.

      This gave the students time to regroup and they soon re-emerged onto the balconies of Mary Stuart, and started pelting the cops with stones.

      Others simply shouted down abuse while the naughty ones waved what looked, suspiciously, like underwear.

      The cops responded with water and teargas, forcing them back into their rooms.
      But while the students could run, they soon found out that they could not hide.
      The cops moved closer to Lumumba and started lobbing teargas canisters into the rooms, forcing them out into the open air of the hall.

      Occasionally, the hunter became the hunted when the wind changed direction and blew the gas back at the cops, drawing a hasty retreat from the cops and cheers from the students.

      They had also managed to make some dents in one of the two police water tankers, registration number UP 0526.

      But it was the students who had received most of the fire and at 5:40 p.m., Mr Tukahirwa, perhaps satisfied that he had done a good job, left with a couple of escorts, leaving the main force behind to take care of any other business.
      He declined to speak to The Monitor as his vehicle drove off.

      Missed lectures

      The chaos disrupted most of the afternoon lectures at the university, especially in the Faculty of Arts and the Institute of Languages, which are near Lumumba Hall.

           

      Ms Martha Tumusiime, a first year Bachelor of Arts student, told The Monitor she had been caught up in the riot and had failed to go for her scheduled lecture.

      The policemen later withdrew slowly, amid insults and occasional missiles, to the university police post, before they were collected and taken away from Makerere. 

      However, a Monitor correspondent at Makerere said, just before we went to press, that there were still policemen deployed at the university.

      Who is to blame?

      According to one of the organisers, Mr James Ozo, the students had approached the university Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Epelu-Opio, for permission to hold the debate.

      They claimed that the official asked them not to involve him in their politics.
      However, The Monitor was unable to independently verify this claim and was unable to speak to Mr Opio.

      His official cellular phone number 075-760551 was said to be "out of service".
      However, the university spokesperson, Ms Hellen Kawesa, said the group had no permission to hold the debate.

      But in a further twist to the tale, the president of the Makerere University Students Guild, Mr Yusuf Kiranda, told The Monitor last evening that the students did not need permission to hold a debate.

      "We don't know why police should come here and interfere with the university when everything was peaceful. Are they trying to provoke us to demonstrate?" he asked.

      The best person to answer that question - police spokesman Assuman Mugenyi - could not be reached for a comment last night as his phone was switched off.
      Although police did not make any arrests, Kiranda told The Monitor that several students were injured during the chaos. 

      This was the first riot at Makerere since September 2002.

      Additional reporting by Evelyn Lirri
     


© 2003 The Monitor Publications


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Gook 

"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."- Malcom X 




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