originally published in the New York Times, United States
Riots erupted at venerated burial grounds in Uganda on Wednesday, and witnesses said that police officers shot and killed three protesters.
The violence was a sign of continuing troubles between the Ugandan government and members of the Buganda traditional kingdom who want more local power.
The trouble started on Tuesday night in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, when a suspicious fire engulfed the Kasubi tombs, built in 1882 and later converted into a royal burial ground for the Buganda kingdom. The tombs are a World Heritage site, and according to Unesco, the United Nations agency that bestows the recognition, they are “a masterpiece of human creativity” and “the most active religious place in the kingdom.”
By Wednesday evening, hundreds of members of the Buganda community were still streaming toward the remains of the tombs, and kingdom officials called for a week of mourning.
“People are camped there, they lit fires, they keep on singing the kingdom’s anthem,” said Peter Myiga, a spokesman for the kingdom. “But there is tension that you can notice.”
Those tensions exploded earlier on Wednesday when Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, visited the scene of the fire and protesters tried to prevent him from approaching the tombs. The main tomb, made of wood, thatch, reed and wattle, had burned to the ground, and supporters of the Buganda king, whose title is the kabaka, blamed arson. Some supporters accused the government of setting the fire.
According to witnesses, the demonstrators booed the president, set up barricades to block his motorcade and pelted his security entourage with stones.
Police officials said officers responded by firing in the air to disperse the crowd, though some witnesses said the officers intentionally trained their assault rifles on the protesters, resulting in the three deaths.
A police spokeswoman, Judith Nabakooba, confirmed the deaths of two people and said five more were wounded, according to Reuters, but she said it was not clear who was responsible.
Eventually the president was able to inspect the tombs. He told the crowd that the fire could have been arson but that it would be hard to ever know because the scene had been tampered with. Mr. Museveni also said he would help pay for the tombs to be rebuilt.
The civil unrest was reminiscent of vicious street fighting last year between kabaka loyalists and government forces. That fighting killed more than 20 people and began after government officers blocked the kabaka’s representatives from visiting a nearby village.
Uganda is to hold elections next year, and many Ugandans are calling for Mr. Museveni, who has been in office for 24 years, to step down. He has shown no inclination to do that, and one Western diplomat recently predicted that the prelude to the vote would be “bumpy.”
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