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On February 18, 2011, Ugandans went to the polls and voted. The election, which had been characterised by massive corruption left the incumbent Museveni still in power.
In the weeks that followed, Ugandans started to air their opinions about the regime and its illegitimacy. They were met with a non tolerant Museveni whose forces arrested any individuals who aired their opinions publicly.
Last week, Action For Change, a non profit civil society organization in Uganda, organized a national "Walk To Work" protest where they called on citizens to walk to work on Monday and Thursday each week, and to walk to their respective prayer houses in protest of the high taxes which are imposed on fuel and thus increasing prices of each aand every commodity.
The government has since responded with arrests of all individual protesters who belong to the opposition. None of these protesters has been charged with any legitimate crime under the Ugandan laws. The police have arrested, shot at and killed at least 4 people as of April 18, 2011. They have sprayed tear gas indiscriminately at schools, churches, and hospitals. They have publicly violated the constitution and there is incredible evidence to show a high-handedness in the way police has handled the situation.
Thus, this petition.
We are requesting you to call your senator, once or twice and inform them of this. Ask them to ask the U.S to stop supporting Museveni's illegitimate regime from protracting terror on Ugandan citizens.
Stop the Ugandan President Museveni from abusing human rights.
Greetings,
I would like to bring to your attention a highly charged situation that is brewing in Uganda.
It is with deplorable horror that I am watching and receiving news about what is happening in Uganda. The government of Uganda under President Yoweri K. Museveni has resumed its indiscriminate operations of brutality against the people of Uganda for engaging in peaceful protests. This time, the Ugandan regime has insisted that people do not have a right to “walk to work” unless they have received police sanctioning of such a walk.
On April 8, 2011, a “walk to work” protest, a bi-weekly peaceful protest, was launched by a civil society non partisan organization called “Activists for Change” (A4C) in Kampala, Uganda. The organization called on every concerned citizen to walk to work in a show of solidarity against the inflation and ever rising fuel and commodity prices. Many politicians in Uganda’s opposition parties embraced this opportunity and each started to walk to work on the designated days of protest. However, since the first day of the said protests, the police and military personnel, under the leadership of President Museveni’s cadres, have unleashed terror on the peaceful protesters. Over 10 people, including an infant have died and several hundred have been injured from the live ammunition. The number keeps rising. Opposition leaders and civilians have been brutalized, arrested, detained on a host of trumped up charges including “walking to work when police asked them not to” among others.
The Police and Military personnel who religiously follow President Museveni’s directives have insisted that the Ugandan people cannot “walk to work” or “peacefully protest” and they have sprayed them with teargas, pepper spray, and indiscriminately shot at them injuring several unarmed civilians. Despite the State run media labeling the protests as “demonstrations” and “riots” , these protests have been peaceful for the most part and have only morphed into demonstrations when the police unleashed terror on the people of Uganda. The government has threatened to prosecute and shut down media houses that publish live or recent updates of its brutality or critic its actions.
I would like you to bring this situation to the attention of other legislators and particularly to implore Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to send an urgent message to President Museveni and his cadres to cease the brutality he has unleashed on the people of Uganda.
The United States has been a strategic ally of Uganda in the Great Lakes Region and has provided sufficient amounts of funding to the Ugandan government. The funding has over the years been diverted to facilitating fraudulent electoral campaigns and entrenching a regime that is focused on imposing brutality on its people.
This must stop. Please sign this petition to implore members of the house to table this issue and protect the innocent lives of civilians in Uganda.
Sincerely,
Concerned voter
[Your name]