For Uganda, No End to Agony : 2 1/2 Months After Coup, Violence Is Widespread

Two and a half months after the military coup that overthrew President Milton Obote in Uganda, the agony of that nation’s 12 million citizens continues unabated. Close observers of the situation say they believe there is no end in sight to the chaos, bloodshed and violence that have descended on the country.

The sporadic talks held over recent weeks between the new military rulers of the country, led by Gen. Tito Okello, and various opposition groups have come to a halt after the leader of the main guerrilla faction, Yoweri Museveni, vanished from Nairobi, where the talks were being held.

Unconfirmed reports said that Museveni has returned to the bush to lead his Uganda National Resistance Army fighters in their continuing struggle to gain control of the country.

The talks, carried on at the urging of Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, had shown little sign of progress. As they broke up last week, reports came from Uganda of more atrocities carried out against civilians by troops loyal to the new government.

The troops, apparently hunting for the sanctuaries of National Resistance fighters in the long-embattled Luwero triangle region north of the capital of Kampala, were reported to have kidnaped about 200 girls from a school.

The girls, 12 to 15 years old, were taken to an army camp, where many were raped and beaten, the reports said.

Alerted to the atrocity reports, military authorities moved the commanders of the accused unit to another part of the country. After visiting the area in the company of the auxiliary bishop of the Ugandan Roman Catholic Church, officers of the army’s central command promised disciplinary action against the soldiers involved.

When the inspection team arrived at Luwero town, they found 200 people living in a church, where they had taken refuge. The soldiers, the reports said, had taken over the neighboring school and staff houses. Some of the schoolgirls said they were forced serve as “wives” to the soldiers and were raped by more than three soldiers per day. Their ordeal had gone on, they said, since the soldiers took over the area Sept. 17.

The soldiers had destroyed or looted most of the property from the church and school.

One elderly man told the church official that his 6-year-old daughter was raped in his presence. He said the soldiers accused the villagers of sympathizing with the National Resistance guerrillas. He said the soldiers found no guerrillas in the area.

Western diplomats and European relief agency officials contacted in Kampala said that reports persisted of similar incidents in other areas of the country.

“The human rights situation has become horrendous,” said one Western diplomat in Kampala. “Orphanages have been attacked. Schools have been attacked. Missions have been looted. People are being kidnaped, schoolgirls raped. I’m not talking about co-eds, now, I’m talking about 12- and 13-year-old girls.”

Nearly Out of Control

A relief agency official in Kampala said he believes that leaders of the new military government are trying to discipline troops guilty of rampages in the countryside but that the situation is nearly out of control.

“It’s not that I doubt their desire,” he said. “I just don’t think they’re capable of stopping it.”

Observers say the first priority of the military government is simply to secure the countryside against further National Resistance incursions and the task is absorbing virtually all of its attention.

The government has been unable to control some major roads out of the capital for more than a few days at a time. Diplomats in the capital spend much of their time, as one said, “trying to keep track of which army controls which town.”

There are no Western news correspondents in the country, and the expatriate community has been reduced to a minimal diplomatic corps, with most wives and children evacuated.

Reports reaching newspapers in neighboring Kenya are confusing, with rebels and army troops often reported in control of the same town by different newspapers. Sometimes the government is reported to have “retaken” a town whose loss to rebels was never announced.

Likely to Persist

Diplomats say the grim situation is unlikely to resolve itself soon. The Ugandan army is apparently unable to stop the National Resistance guerrillas, and the guerrillas do not yet have the strength to take over the capital.

The problems are further complicated by country’s vicious history of tribal divisions, which splits even the army that is theoretically joined in the battle against Museveni’s guerrillas.

Those divisions were exacerbated, experts on the Ugandan situation say, by the inclusion of about 3,000 soldiers formerly loyal to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who was ousted in 1979. Sources say that Gen. Okello and the other military leaders who masterminded the coup against Obote invited the Amin soldiers back to the army to ensure the success of their strike against Obote.

The inclusion of these forces, however, has brought deep concern to many Ugandans. And the move also consolidated the opposition of Museveni, whom Okello hoped could be brought into the fold in the aftermath of Obote’s flight from the country. (Obote, who first took refuge in Kenya, later flew to Zambia, where he is believed to remain.)

Rebel’s Stiff Demands

Museveni seemed to flirt with the idea for a time, although his demands were stiff. He sought at least half the seats on the ruling military council and a major voice in the Ugandan army. At this, the new military leaders balked.

Museveni, sources close to the aborted talks in Nairobi said, believes his five-year bush war against the Obote government entitles him to a larger role. As the talks ground fitfully on, some observers said, Museveni became convinced he should hold out for total command and the eventual presidency of Uganda. With his bush fighters frustrating government hopes for control of the country, Museveni’s confidence in his position increased.

With the military stalemate and the talks at an apparent impasse, there seems little the outside world can do to halt the suffering of ordinary Ugandan citizens caught in the crossfire. Some Ugandans have suggested that neighboring Kenya and Tanzania--and perhaps the former colonial ruler, Britain--could dispatch a peacekeeping force to the country, but that idea has not been taken seriously.

“There isn’t much anyone can do,” one diplomat commented, “until the Ugandans take the first step, which is to stop the killing. The Tanzanians are very upset by the introduction of the former Amin troops into the army--after all, they fought against those soldiers when they drove Amin from power. The Kenyans, who would like to see the situation stabilized because it is costing them a lot of money (Uganda is Kenya’s largest regional trading partner), don’t want to get their fingers burned in this thing. The British, who have a dozen or so military advisers here, are extremely chary of the situation.”

Tightening Circle

The result, for most Ugandans, is a tightening circle of fear and hardship. Residents of the capital report that costs of basic food items, such as the green bananas that are a staple of the local diet, have skyrocketed in the last week. Foreigners and others who are able to leave have fled across the border as it becomes clear that no solution is in sight.

Some transport reaches as far as Kampala but is able to go no farther, residents say. Western areas of the country have run out of gasoline and kerosene. Food is in short supply in some regions, where a sort of barter economy prevails. Road links to Rwanda and Burundi have been cut.

Some petroleum products are able to reach Burundi over Lake Victoria, but Rwanda, diplomats say, is virtually cut off from freight supplies that must reach it by road, through Uganda, from the nearest Kenyan seaport, Mombasa.