Indian community in Uganda shaken after mob attack 
[ 14 Apr, 2007 1526hrs ISTIANS ]
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JOHANNESBURG:
Indians in the Ugandan capital Kampala are still frightened and shaken after
Thursday's mob attack in which at least two Indians were killed and a Hindu
temple attacked by a mob protesting the proposed expansion plan of an Indian
sugar firm by cutting down a protected
rainforest.
The mob was
protesting at the move by the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (Scoul), part
of the Indian-owned Mehta group, to expand its sugar estates by cutting the
Mabira rain forest- one of Uganda's last remaining patches of natural forest. It
has been a nature reserve since
1932.
Troops had to be deployed
to control the situation, after police failed to stop rioters attacking Asian
businesses.
Shangu Patel of the
Indian Association, went around the city Friday encouraging Asians to reopen
their shops but his efforts were met with scepticism, the online edition of New
Vision reported.
"How can we be
very sure that there will be no repeat?" asked a local Indian
shopkeeper.
The controversy
began last year when the Ugandan government ordered a study into whether to cut
down nearly a third of Mabira- one of Uganda's last remaining patches of natural
forest.
The government's
proposal had angered many in the country who alleged that the environmental
costs of slashing the forest would far exceed the economic benefits of the
plantation.
Until 1972, Asians
constituted the largest non-indigenous ethnic group in Uganda. In that year, the
Idi Amin regime expelled 50,000 Asians, who had been engaged in trade, industry,
and various professions. In the years since Amin's overthrow in 1979, Asians
have slowly returned.
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