{"id":110599,"date":"2025-02-18T13:04:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T13:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/02\/18\/museveni-calls-besigyes-hunger-strike-unprincipled-blackmail\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T13:04:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T13:04:20","slug":"museveni-calls-besigyes-hunger-strike-unprincipled-blackmail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/museveni-calls-besigyes-hunger-strike-unprincipled-blackmail\/","title":{"rendered":"Museveni calls Besigye\u2019s hunger strike \u2018unprincipled blackmail\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 18 \u2013 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has criticized opposition figure Kizza Besigye\u2019s hunger strike, describing it as an \u2018unprincipled blackmail.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Museveni in a statement Tuesday addressed concerns surrounding the detained opposition leader\u2019s health, emphasizing that the government has ensured adequate medical care.<\/p>\n<p>He asserted that the opposition leader has access to government medical facilities in prison and has also been attended to by his personal doctors at private clinics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there was need for any additional medical care, the Government would be advised. However, in this case, Dr. Besigye was on hunger strike,\u201d read his statement in part.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is part of the cause for his weakness that we could see in the pictures that were in the newspapers. Is that not unprincipled blackmail?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Ugandan leader questioned Besigye\u2019s use of a hunger strike as a means to gain public sympathy and push for bail, rather than seeking a quick trial to address the charges against him.<\/p>\n<p>Museveni also sought to reframe the public discourse, urging Ugandans to focus on why Besigye was arrested rather than his detention conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Besigye, a longtime critic of the Museveni administration and a former presidential candidate, was arrested in Nairobi\u2019s Riverside area last year on allegations of planning to jeopardize Uganda\u2019s security infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>He would later be charged in a military court with illegal possession of a firearm, threatening national security, as well as treachery, which carries the death sentence. He denies the accusations.<\/p>\n<p>His supporters have called for his immediate release, citing concerns over his health and the political nature of the charges against him.<\/p>\n<p>Besigye\u2019s arrest and hunger strike have sparked a renewed debate over political freedoms in Uganda, with human rights groups calling for due process and fair treatment in his trial.<\/p>\n<p>The opposition has accused the government of using unconstitutional tactics to suppress dissent, a claim the authorities have denied.<\/p>\n<p>Museveni\u2019s remarks come on the back of calls for his unconditional release from the international community including a statement by human right defenders among them Amnesty International.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 18 \u2013 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has criticized opposition figure Kizza Besigye\u2019s hunger strike, describing it as an \u2018unprincipled blackmail.\u2019 Museveni in a statement Tuesday addressed concerns surrounding the detained opposition leader\u2019s health, emphasizing that the government has ensured adequate medical care. He asserted that the opposition leader has access to government [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}