Uganda's main opposition figure
was arrested Wednesday ahead of the inauguration of long-time President Yoweri
Museveni, raising the possibility of violence as police try to quell possible
opposition protests.
Kizza Besigye, who claims he
won the presidential election in February, was arrested Wednesday as he
addressed a crowd of supporters in the capital, Kampala, said Patrick Onyango,
a police spokesman in Kampala, the capital. Police used force, including
beatings, to disperse the crowd and then Besigye's car was towed away.
"He is in a gazetted
detention facility," Onyango said of Besigye.
The police crackdown comes
before Museveni, in power for 30 years, is sworn in to another term on
Thursday. On Wednesday social media sites like Facebook and Twitter appeared to
have been shut down by a government censor. Besigye's party, the Forum for
Democratic Chance, reported on Twitter earlier on Wednesday that Besigye had
been sworn in as Uganda's president in a mock ceremony before the police took
him away.
Many opposition figures have
been detained inside their homes, in what police say are measures to prevent
the officials from committing crimes. One of the detainees, lawmaker Semujju
Nganda, said Wednesday that he has been unable to leave his house since Monday,
with heavily armed security personnel standing guard at his gate.