CHAOS RULES UGANDA, TRAVELERS SAYS
By SHEILA RULE, Special to the New York Times
Published: August 1, 1985
BUSIA, Kenya, July 31 About 300 Americans and Europeans traveled today by
convoy from Uganda to this border town, where many offered grim accounts of
fear, intimidation and chaos in the aftermath of the military coup Saturday
in that East African nation.
The foreigners, mainly diplomatic dependents, business executives, people
connected with international organizations and some tourists, painted a
picture of a fragile situation in a country that is still divided.
They said they witnessed army patrols shooting at soldiers who were engaging
in widespread looting, enlisted men and civilians plundering the dwellings
of poor Ugandans as well the shops of Asian merchants and young children
wielding long knives to rob the looters of their booty. According to these
accounts, parts of Kampala, the capital, had been reduced to a jumble of
trash, smoldering buildings and broken glass.
Told to Leave Uganda
Shortly before 1 P.M. today, the first passengers to arrive in the nearly
50-car convoy were taken by bus from the border entry point to a nearby
reception center. The convoy began the journey from Kampala about 9 A.M. as
Western diplomats gave instructions through megaphones and large crowds of
Ugandans gathered outside the British High Commission to watch.
Most of those interviewed said they had been ordered by their companies or
agencies to leave Uganda because of fears that the situation could become
more dangerous. A secretary from the American Embassy in Kampala said that
only a skeleton crew remained there. Western diplomats said there were about
200 Americans and nearly 1,000 Britons in Uganda at the time of the coup.
More convoys are expected to reach Busia, with the approval of Uganda's new
military Government, although the borders and Entebbe Airport remain
officially closed.
Seated on a suitcase under the withering sun of Busia, which is about 238
miles northwest of Nairobi, Marie Lacour said that she and her father had
been outside Kampala when President Milton Obote's Government was overthrown
by rebellious army units.
''It wasn't very pleasant when we returned on Sunday,'' said Miss Lacour, 19
years old, a Dane who is a student at Stanford University in California. Her
father works for a project in Uganda financed by the World Bank.
''People were running in all directions with shopping bags, civilians and
soldiers both,'' she said. ''Windows were broken and buildings were burning.
In Kampala, there was a nasty roadblock. A man who said he was a Ugandan war
correspondent was very drunk with some other soldiers. They stopped the car
and he demanded money. He got into our car with a hand grenade.
''He said take me to your house and we will get money there. We drove on and
he kept giving orders such as slow down or speed up. My father didn't want
to take him to our house, so we drove off onto a side road into a driveway.
I got out and pretended I was going to ask the man at the gate for a key.
The man with the grenade got out. I dashed back into the car, and my father
and I drove off.''
The coup was carried out as Uganda prepared for general elections. It came
amid bitter divisions in the poorly disciplined army between two northern
tribes, the Acholi and the Langi, that have a long rivalry. Mr. Obote, whose
nearly five-year-old Government was marked by insurgencies and human rights
violations, fled to Kenya; his current whereabouts are uncertain.
New Premier Reported Named
A new ruling military council has been formed, with Lieut. Gen. Tito Okello
as chairman, and today Mr. Obote's Vice President, Paulo Muwanga, was
selected as Prime Minister in the interim administration, according to the
state radio.
The military council has won the support of the Democratic Party, the main
opposition under Mr. Obote's rule, but has failed to gain the backing of the
National Resistance Army, led by Yoweri Museveni.
Mr. Museveni led his followers into the bush after Mr. Obote came to power
in elections in 1980, mounting an insurgency that has dragged on. A
statement issued by the rebel group, which reportedly still has more than
8,000 men in the bush and which was urged by the coup leaders to back the
new Government, criticized the new rulers for setting up an administration
without the rebel army's knowledge or consent.
photo of Zari Irani completing forms (Reuters)
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko"
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