Edition: U.S. / Global

Lynchings and Arrests Mar Ugandan Elections

Published: June 28, 2001

The Ugandan police put a junior government minister under house arrest today in an investigation into election bloodshed that took six lives and hurt the country's reputation as one of Africa's promising democracies.

Several shootings and the lynching of several people marred parliamentary voting on Tuesday, prompting opponents to say President Yoweri Museveni has fanned tensions with an increasingly autocratic style. The killings followed the deaths of about 12 people in election-related violence during campaigning for presidential elections won easily by Mr. Museveni in March.

The minister of state for culture, Vincent Nyanzi, was put under house arrest by police officers looking into charges that his bodyguard shot and wounded a supporter of a rival candidate.

In the worst incident of violence, the bodyguard of a candidate for Parliament shot dead a protester, prompting a mob to lynch the bodyguard and at least four other people. The candidate, Simon Mulongo, has been arrested.

Elsewhere, a member of Parliament,Otieno Akika, was also taken into custody after being charged today with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at a crowd of opponents on voting day.

The incidents may prove embarrassing for President Museveni, only a month ago lauded by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell as a leader likely to make Uganda a multiparty democracy.

Mr. Museveni's 15-year-old ''no party movement'' system of government bans political parties in the name of preserving national unity. But some analysts say the president is increasingly using the system to stifle dissent.

''The movement was more open a few years ago than it is now,'' said a senior Western diplomat. ''Increasingly, uniformity of opinion is the order of the day.''

Unofficial results showed Mr. Museveni's supporters certain of retaining their dominance in the 292-seat assembly, although several cabinet ministers appeared to have lost their seats.

In an apparent snub of Mr. Museveni, defiant voters in his home area voted for Winnie Binyama, the wife of Kizza Besigye, Mr. Museveni's rival in the March presidential elections.