Is
Uaanda Bleeding
To Death?
Shi., DECEMBER 19. 1981 THE CAROLINA TIMES -II
AN Some ' sixty
civilians were reportedly -killed
last week in the'
Mengo District, roughly
forty miles north of the '
Ugandan capital, Kam
pala, and press dispat
ches say that most of
them died at the hands of
government soldiers who
were searching for guer
rilla forces in the area.
Events like those in
Mengo have become
commonplace in Uganda
today, as the death toll
mounts weekly, showing !
little sign of abating. A
distressed President
Milton Obote has
repeatedly condemned
international press
coverage that exag
gerates the extent of
troubles in what he says '
are merely and handful
of insecure areas. Obote .
has also redoubled ef-1
forts to keep a tighter
grip on the problem '
areas, but given the lack
of discipline among
government forces, some
security measures seem
to feed the cycle of
violence.
Some 600 specially
selected members of
Obote's party are now
completing a training
course to prepare them
for a watchdog role in
the Ugandan army. And
in early December the
president set up a new
1 3-member security com
mittee that includes
religious leaders, two
members of the opposi
tion Democratic Party
(DP) and three govern
ment officials. Its task is
formidable.
Of primary concern to
the government security
apparatus . are the anti
Obote political groups,
including the DP. The
DP continues to par
ticipate in the govern
ment in its minority role,
but some party adherents
have joined other groups
in backing guerrilla ac
tion to oust Obote, who
they claim gained power
by fraud in the
December 1 980 election.,.
As of ear ihiis thontb
five of the DP's 45
members of . parliament
were in prison awaiting
treason trials, and, ac
cording to party leaders,
up to 12,000 other sup
porters have been detain
ed as well. President
Obote denies the ex
istence of large numbers
of political prisoners or
of a crackdown on DP
members in particular.
In late June, leaders of
four armed groups met
in secret in Kenya where
two of them, the Popular
Resistance Army (PR A)
led by Yoweri Museveni
and the Uganda
Freedom Fighters (UFF)
headed by former Presi
dent Yusufu Lule, united
as the National
Resistance Movement
(NRM). Museveni is to
lead the combined guer
rilla forces, while Lule
retains leadership of the
political council.
Amin Links Denied
Two other groups j
chose to be
. "cooperative" rather
than participate in the
merger. One, the Ugan
da Freedom Movement
(UFM), is led by Andrew
Kayira, who was a
minister in Lule's1979
government. The other,
the Uganda National
Resuce Front, is headed
by Brigadier Moses Ali,
once finance minister
under Idi Amin. Ali
denies any current Amin
connection and dismisses
Amin's occasional
claims that he still has
forces loyal to him inside
the country.
Nonetheless, the inclu
sion of Ali in the anti
Obote unity attempts ap
pears to be an un-'
precedented step toward
reconciliation with
former Amin partisans.
Red Cross sources say
the government has no
control north of Arua,
the northwestern district
in which Ali operates,
along with Felix Onama
and former Amin com
mander, Brigadier
Emilio . Mondo. A
stalemate between guer-
it . !
nuas ana government
forces in the area has
held since June, but this
month the BBC reports
there are plans afoot for
the Ugandan army to
simply burn off wide
acreages in the locale to
destroy brush cover and
flush out the rebels.
The. UFM and NRM'
are active ' primarily in
the south and west,
mainly within thirty to
fifty miles of Kampala.
This encompases areas'
populated largely by the
Baganda ethnic group,!
within which Obote has',
never been popular.'
Since late August there
have been intermittent
attacks -on police sta
tions, military posts and
other targets, with land
mines 'used in some'
cases.. In one August
blast a key rail bridge
was blown up.
According to T.R.
Lansner, reporter for the
Guardian of . London,
the UFM has focused on
urban sabotage and
assassinations, while the
Lule (and Museveni's
NRM is working to
establish a political base
in the countryside.
, The five districts (out
of 33) that Obote
describes as insecure
Mukono, Luwero,
Mpigi, Kampala and
Arua are all areas
where anti-Obote groups
are active, Karamoja,
another section that has
experienced , great
violence in the midst of
famine,, is considered by
the government as a
quite different situation.
There they say the pro
blem is one of cattle
rustling and banditry by
people who have heavily
armed themselves with
weapons stashed in the
area by Amin's cadre in
earlier years.
Lawlessness In
The Military
,On the whole, it is the
national army itself that
is blamed for most of the .
blood shed and vic
timization of . civilians.
The eight to twenty thou
sand Ugandan troops are ,
notoriously under
trained, under-fed, fre
quently unpaid, and un
disciplined although
surprisingly well-armed.
Authorities lack any ac
curate figures on how
many soldiers there are
in each battalion, "and
the chain of command is
very shaky, especially in
remote areas.
In districts where
troops man roadblocks
for security checks,
travelers may be relieved
of every bit of money
they are carrying as part
of a routine search.
Many who have tried to
keep money hidden from
the soldiers have, accor
ding to news reports,
simply been killed.
Gradually, the
smaller, better-trained
and disciplined police
force is being sent to
replace troops at
roadblocks, but the
government has been
unable to move the
soldiers back into the
barracks and out of the.
countryside; And
fighting between factions
within the army or bet
ween the police and the
army has added to the
terror and victimization
of local villagers.
In September, for in
stance, the Wandegeya
police station was attack
ed by soldiers arriving in
three jeeps and armed
with rocket-propelled
grenades and small arms.
According to Kenya's
Weekly Review, the ar
my men were retaliating
for police efforts to stop
soldiers from looting in
an incident that resulted
in four soldiers shot.
;?. Whatever the - initial
spark, civilians seem to
be the major victims.
Local residents charged
that many innocent peo
ple were bayoneted to
death by soldiers during
the house-to-house sear
ches in Mengo last week,
and three villages remain
deserted because of the
fear of further reprisals.
Even normally safe
places have suffered.
Near Arua, the Ombachi
mission served as a Red
Cross station . and
sheltered some 7,000
frightened civilians flee
ing both the army and
the guerrillas when on
June 24, government
soldiers burst in and
massacred 56, mostly
women and children.
Frustrated by the ap
parent lack of progress
on this front in the first
nine months of Obote's
rule, Ugandan religious
leaders demanded a per
sonal meeting with the
president in October and
accused him of indif
ference, declaring, "The
Uganda you lead" is
bleeding to death." In a
four-hour session,
Catholic, Protestant, Or
thodox and Muslim
representatives made
suggestions on ways to
bring order and peace
out of the chaos, and
three of their nominees
were appointed to the
security committee.
The climate of violent
confrontation has sent
more than 120,000
Ugandans across the
border into refugee
camps once again since
June. It is also a major
roadblock to the hard
sought economic
: 1 1111 mill. i i I. 1. j jjiii.i ii u"" mi .1 , 'i mill
v.
r.
WASHINGTON President and Mrs. Reagan honored the five Kennedy Center award winners at a
White House reception and later attended a performance at the Kennedy Center. Shown (1-r) are Helen
Hayes, Count Basie, Cary Grant and the Reagans. UPI Photo
recovery that Obote
hopes can restore Ugan
da's faith in its govern
ment. Reconstruction
Efforts
- Threatened
Obote's administra
tion has taken significant
steps to revitalize the
economy, but, according
to Africa Now, the word
has gone out, "par
ticularly in Buganda and
Busoga," that to help in
the economic efforts is to
help Obote and therefore
"tantamount to tribal
treason."
Nonetheless,
Uganda's economic
planners forge ahead.
Foreign aid and exports
through November had
provided only $830
million of the estimated
$1.7 billion needed for
foreign exchange com
mitments this year, and
consequently economic
reconstruction efforts
have had to be scaled
down. High oil prices
and a five-year low for
coffee prices have made
the situation desperate
despite more than a tripl
ing of coffee exports in
the past year. Central
Bank reserves are fre
quently not enough for
even one day's imports.
Indeed, 55 of
Uganda's export earn
ings this year went, ac
cording to the ministry
of finance, to pay in
terest on existing debts.
To help alleviate this
problem in late
November, Uganda's
principal creditor na
tions met in Paris and
agreed to reschedule the
country's major external
debts, allowing payment
over the next ten years of
obligations originally
due between July 1, 1981
and June 30, 1982. The
U.S., France, Great Bri
tain, West Germany, Ita
ly and Japan par
ticipated in the talks.
Earlier both West Ger
many and Britain an
nounced intent to cancel
a part of the oustanding
debts owed them.
Indicative of the
government's resolve to
protect its credit record,
Ugandan officials hired
the British merchant
bank Morgan Grenfell to
verify the debt, ;imake
recommendations for
rescheduling, - and
prepare econtomic infor
mation for prospective
donors. An aid-pledging
conference is planned for
April 1982 in Kampala.
Also in November an
International Monetary
Fund team visited Ugan
da to confirm thfU the
government still
qualified for the second
installment of a" $130
million loan. The first
half, delivered in June,
largely went to pay oil
debts.
The Ugandan govern
ment raised prices paid
to producers of coffee,
cotton, tea and tobacco
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