The Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) Secretary Alice Alaso has cautioned the Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces to order the removal of the military from Makerere University before people lose their lives.
Alaso said the way military soldiers brutalised students was too inhumane, a reminder of past regimes where soldiers beat and raped local people while leaders kept a blind eye.
Makerere University students have since Tuesday been striking due to the 15 per cent increment in their tuition fees.
However, after running battles with police on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Military Police broke into students’ hostels on Thursday night and beat up students while others were arrested.
Property worth millions was also destroyed. On Friday morning, the army started where it stopped at night and arresting whoever crossed their paths, including some journalists.
However, Alaso has cautioned President Museveni not to remind Ugandans of past regimes because it might cause unrest.
“The state has responded in a very high handed and very unacceptable manner. Students were brutally arrested, tortured by the military and some have been suspended. We are reliably informed that in the last night military indiscriminately beat-up, arrested and detained students in unknown places. There are also allegations of sexual harassment and molestation,” said Alaso.
She added that her party condemns in the strongest terms the highhanded manner in which university management decided to handle student’s issues.
“Those in charge, particularly the Commander-in-Chief should immediately withdraw soldiers from Makerere University. We as a nation have fresh memories of the brutal conduct by the army on many cases in past regimes including the recent case of Kasese. And when this happens to unarmed students, there is reason to be extremely concerned,” she added.
In a way, she called upon the university administration and specifically the vice-chancellor to urgently reconsider their methods of grievance handling in an academic institution.
“The vice-chancellor should stop the ongoing tendency of recourse to the Police and the military as a means of sorting out disagreements and students complaint. No parent wants to receive back a dead or injured student no matter what the indiscipline. Makerere is not a military Barracks,” said Alaso.
She also called upon the Parliament to immediately address this issue of tuition increment policy before the worse comes.
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