The Queen inspects a guard of honour before 500,000 cheering Ugandans welcomed her back to the former British colony. Photo / AP
The Queen arrived in Uganda to an exuberant old-fashioned royal welcome yesterday as Commonwealth leaders prepared to debate vexed topics from climate change to Pakistan.
Cheering Ugandans clambered on rooftops and lined 30km of highway as at least 500,000 people, many waving the Union Jack, welcomed the Queen
and the Duke of Edinburgh on their first visit to the country since 1954, when it was a British colony.
The 81-year-old monarch was greeted by President Yoweri Museveni when she arrived in Entebbe, Uganda's capital during the British colonial era.
Wearing a cowboy hat, Uganda's leader - whose election victory last year was heavily criticised by foreign observers - stood to attention next to his royal guest as a military band screeched through a noisy rendition of God Save the Queen.
New Zealand's Prime Minister, Helen Clark, yesterday left Singapore, where she has been attending the East Asia Summit, for Uganda.
She predicted that emergency rule in Pakistan and climate change were the issues likely to dominate the heads of government meeting.
It was likely the Commonwealth leaders would push for more action to ensure the upcoming elections in Pakistan were free and fair.
"There are still some issues," Helen Clark said. "Senior judges have been sacked. There are a lot of restrictions on liberty in Pakistan, so my feeling is the Commonwealth summit is likely to say, 'What about all these other issues that stand in the way of Pakistani democracy being able to develop?"'
A statement on the need for a return to democracy in Fiji was also likely.
