Uganda: Gutted heritage tombs spark riots

  1. Posted on Wednesday 17 March 2010 - 15:48
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    Ugandan soldiers and police have clashed with rioters in the capital after fire gutted the site of the burial grounds of the former kings of the country's largest historic kingdom. Security forces used tear gas to disperse members of the Baganda ethnic group angry at the destruction of the tombs at Kasubi on the outskirts of Kampala.
    Uganda_map
    "Last night the tomb of their kings - 200 hundred years basically of their cultural heritage - was burnt to the ground. They suspect it was arson. I've seen four people who were injured - some of them may be dead.

    But the crowd has been largely chased away. A lot of them were marched out of the tombs compound with their hands up and sent down the road, chased off with tear gas," according Kampala-based journalist, Malcolm Webb.

    Buganda is one of Uganda's four historic kingdoms and the Baganda are the most populous ethnic grouping in the country.

    Kasubi, designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, is an important tourist site housing the burial grounds of four former kings of Buganda.

    The last king was buried there in 1971, Al Jazeera reported.

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