African press review 30 May 2013

Ugandan police are still camped outside newspaper offices. Kenyan police are accused of terrorising refugees. There are violence and boycott threats ahead of Mozambique's election. Madagascar's poll is postponed. And is the AU talking hogwash? 

In Uganda The Daily Monitor police siege enters its 11th day.

The paper's main story this morning says that the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office has warned British citizens to exercise caution because of the use of teargas and rubber bullets by the police in the area around two of Uganda’s private media houses.

The premises of both the Daily Monitor and the Red Pepper tabloid were searched by police on Monday week last, and a police presence remains at both sites, despite court orders compelling them to leave.

On Wednesday, according to a separate story in the Monitor, armed police officers kept guard at the Daily Monitor premises, beat and teargassed journalists from other media houses who were participating in a solidarity march against the siege.

The Parliamentary Press Association has condemned the closure of Daily Monitor and has resolved to petition Parliamentary Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and the East African Legislative Assembly over the matter.

The original police search followed a story the Daily Monitor published in which General  David Sejusa wrote to the Director General of Internal Security Organisation, asking him to investigate claims that there is a plot to assassinate top government officials opposed to President Museveni’s alleged move to have his son, and the Commander of Special Forces Command, Brigadier Keinerugaba Muhoozi, succeed him as president.

Kenyan police tortured, raped and arbitrarily detained more than 1,000 refugees on the pretext of fighting terrorism, a human rights report revealed on Wednesday, the Daily Nation reports.

Police from four units unleashed a wave of abuses against Somali and Ethiopian refugees, asylum-seekers and Somali Kenyans in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate between mid-November 2012 and late January this year, according to the organisation, Human Rights Watch.

The rights group accuses the squads of beatings, theft, extortion and arbitrary arrest in inhuman and degrading conditions.

The report, based on 101 interviews, says many women and children were among the victims.

Human Rights Watch has asked the National Police Service Commission and the Independent Police Oversight Authority to investigate commanding officers - including the police inspector general and his two deputies - responsible for police units active in Eastleigh between mid-November 2012 and late January 2013.

On its international pages the Nation reports that Mozambique has begun registering voters for upcoming polls amid heightened political tension, with the main opposition Renamo threatening a boycott after its feud with the Frelimo-led government has descended into violence.

The southern African nation will hold local elections in November and use the same electoral roll in next year's general election.

Technical glitches like broken computers and ink shortages marked the kick-off of registrations last weekend.

The Nation also carries the story that Madagascar's interim government on Wednesday postponed elections, intended to end a four-year political deadlock on the island, after a special court found outside factors had derailed the poll preparations.

An electoral court said the suspension of donor funds and international rejection of three controversial presidential candidates made it unlikely the Indian Ocean island would be ready by the proposed date of 24 July.

Interim leader Andry Rajoelina, 38, who seized power with military backing in 2009, on Monday asked for a one-month suspension of the vote.

The African Union has refused to recognise Rajoelina's candidacy, also banning his rival's wife, Lalao Ravalomanana, and former president Didier Ratsiraka.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called on all three candidates to withdraw from the race.

On Kenya's local scene, the Standard online reports that Coalition for Reforms and Democracy leader Raila Odinga has lashed out at the African Union for branding the International Criminal Court racist and targeting only African leaders.

He termed the sentiments of the African heads of state hypocritical, insisting that the accused "took themselves" to The Hague.

“The AU is independent and has a right to lobby the United Nations Security Council to refer whatever case they want. But to say that the ICC is targeting Africa is hogwash,” Raila said yesterday.

The former PM recalled how Kenyans bungled the opportunity to establish a local tribunal to try perpetrators of the 2008 post-election violence and preferred to be tried at The Hague-based court.