KAMPALA, Uganda — Ugandan police said Monday that authorities have arrested more than 100 people suspected of involvement in a street protest last week in which a policeman was killed. Opposition politicians accused the president of behaving like former Ugandan dictators.
Police and plainclothes security personnel cordoned off a street in the Ugandan capital Saturday and then raided a shopping center for potential suspects. A policeman was hit and killed by a rock as opposition politicians and their supporters marched in Kampala last week, police said.
The case has proved highly divisive, with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni saying those responsible for the killing would “pay dearly.” Skeptics in the opposition say the policeman was instead killed by a stray bullet from a colleague’s gun.
Opposition politicians have said the arrests, in which heavily armed men invaded shops and dragged suspects to trucks as sirens wailed, are reminiscent of past dictators such as Idi Amin and Milton Obote, whose soldiers were notorious for conducting ambitious swoops that inspired fear.
Police spokesman Judith Nabakooba said the arrested suspects had been screened and some released.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 03/27/2012