Fall of Kampala Reported Near as Troops Fight House to House

Rebel forces seized control of parts of the capital Friday in fierce house-to-house fighting with government troops, and Western diplomats said Kampala is on the brink of falling to the insurgents.

“I think we will have a change in government soon,” one diplomat said.

By nightfall, the National Resistance Army guerrillas had managed to silence the transmitters of Radio Uganda--the East African country’s national radio--but failed to dislodge all government units in the downtown area after a full day of fighting.

The National Resistance Army is a 10,000-man guerrilla force led by former Ugandan Defense Minister Yoweri Museveni.

Diplomats and residents said casualties are believed to number in the hundreds. All of the Americans living in Kampala are thought to be safe, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said.

“The city has been broken up into zones of influence, you could say,” said one Western diplomat, who asked not to be identified. “Right now, no one is in control of the entire town.”

5-Year Guerrilla War

After a late afternoon lull, the fighting intensified as darkness settled on the capital, with the rebels trying to press home their advantage against a seemingly demoralized government army.

A rebel capture of Kampala would climax almost five years of guerrilla war waged by the National Resistance Army against civilian President Milton Obote and the military regime of Gen. Tito Okello, which seized power from Obote in a coup last July.

Museveni launched his guerrilla movement in 1981 after accusing Obote of rigging the national elections that brought him to power.

Museveni contends that both Obote and Okello have mistreated the majority Baganda tribe from southern Uganda. Obote and Okello are from northern tribes, while Museveni is from western Uganda.

Peace Pact Ineffective

The National Resistance Army and the government signed a peace and power-sharing agreement in Nairobi, Kenya, on Dec. 17, but neither side implemented the accord. Both sides used the shaky truce to resupply and reposition their forces throughout the country.

National Resistance Army officials in Nairobi said the whereabouts of Museveni is “a military secret.” Okello is believed to have fled to Entebbe, 25 miles from Kampala and site of Uganda’s international airport.

In desperation Friday, government soldiers fired anti-aircraft guns at the attacking rebels as fighting spread from the suburbs to the center of Kampala.

Diplomats said that thousands of army soldiers are fleeing the capital toward eastern Uganda, abandoning their posts and weapons, but that more disciplined units were regrouping and preparing to fight again.