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| Ugandan apology for royal arrests | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Ugandan Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi has apologised to MPs for the manner in which three officials from the kingdom of Buganda were arrested. | |
| They were detained for a week despite a court order demanding their release before they were charged. | |
| Their dramatic arrest for sedition has been criticised by human rights groups. | Their dramatic arrest for sedition has been criticised by human rights groups. |
| A BBC reporter says the government has lately been at loggerheads with the traditional kingdom of Buganda over a controversial land reform bill. | A BBC reporter says the government has lately been at loggerheads with the traditional kingdom of Buganda over a controversial land reform bill. |
| The Baganda are the largest ethnic group in Uganda and their Buganda Kingdom was restored with limited political powers by President Yoweri Museveni in 1993, after it has been disbanded in 1966, four years after independence. | |
| The kingdom has since been demanding the return of its communal land, but the government wants to give the tenants who have been on the land for the past few decades rights to farm it. | The kingdom has since been demanding the return of its communal land, but the government wants to give the tenants who have been on the land for the past few decades rights to farm it. |
| 'Incommunicado' | 'Incommunicado' |
| Mr Nsibambi said that the government should recognise its mistakes, and enter constructive negotiations with the kingdom. | |
| How can you hold someone for seven days in various detention centres subjecting someone to psychological torture and emotional stress? Suspect Medard Lubega | How can you hold someone for seven days in various detention centres subjecting someone to psychological torture and emotional stress? Suspect Medard Lubega |
| He was speaking at the end of a five-hour debate in parliament after the speaker had been forced to recall the house, which has been in recess, after 100 MPs signed a petition asking for the issue to be discussed. | |
| The BBC's Joshua Mmali in the capital, Kampala, says the arrests of the Buganda Kingdom officials has caused a furore. | |
| Despite a court order to release the suspects unconditionally after their arrest on Friday 18 July and a weekend spent in prison, they were rearrested and transferred to western Uganda. | |
| They were then charged with inciting violence and attempting to obtain firearms to engage in terrorism. | They were then charged with inciting violence and attempting to obtain firearms to engage in terrorism. |
| Medard Lubega, one of the suspects now on bail, told the BBC's Network Africa programme they were held incommunicado during their time in detention. | |
| "How can you hold someone for seven days in various detention centres subjecting someone to psychological torture and emotional stress... then charge me with sedition which I [supposedly] committed in Kampala and you've been allegedly investigating in western Uganda?" he asked. | "How can you hold someone for seven days in various detention centres subjecting someone to psychological torture and emotional stress... then charge me with sedition which I [supposedly] committed in Kampala and you've been allegedly investigating in western Uganda?" he asked. |