Uganda Forges New, Closer Ties to Libya : Kadafi Seen as Friend and Benefactor by President Museveni

Whatever his image in the West, Col. Moammar Kadafi of Libya has found friends in Uganda’s new government.

Over the last few months, Kadafi and President Yoweri Museveni have been forging close military and political ties.

Museveni, whose guerrilla army took power in this East African nation last January, has openly thanked Kadafi for helping arm his five-year insurgency. Museveni also has welcomed Kadafi and an 800-member Libyan entourage to Kampala, and has sent soldiers to Libya for training.

Friends With Kadafi

Officially, Museveni’s foreign policy is non-aligned, and his government is interested in aid programs offered by the United States, Britain and other Western countries. But if the price for Western help is repudiation of Kadafi, Uganda will forgo the aid, Museveni says.

“The Americans call the Libyans terrorists,” said Museveni after a trip to Libya in August. “I don’t believe that rubbish. We find it easy and proper to deal with the Libyan government and people because they’re independent-minded like us. They don’t take orders from anybody.”

Museveni sees Libya’s People’s Committees, created to form the basis of government, as a model for the “resistance committees” established in Ugandan villages.

Upsurge of Attacks

Museveni hailed the committee system as “a major uniting factor between our peoples,” and commended Libya for rejecting what he called “so-called representative democracy,” meaning elected national legislatures.

Since Kadafi’s five-day visit to Uganda in September, the level of military cooperation and aid has increased, coinciding with an upsurge of attacks in northern Uganda by rebel soldiers loyal to previous regimes.

There has been speculation, not confirmed by the government, that Libya is willing to pay for weapons that top Ugandan defense officials recently sought from the Soviet Union, China and North Korea.

Moderate, pro-Western Ugandans, who in January were invited by Museveni to join a broad-based government, appear to have been shunted away from the center of power. Some were jailed recently for allegedly plotting Museveni’s overthrow.

Accord With Libya

A barter trade agreement was signed during Museveni’s visit to Libya in August. Under the accord, Museveni said, Libya will supply Uganda with crude oil, cement, gypsum and tractors in exchange for coffee, cotton, tobacco, hides, soybeans, fruits and timber.

“In spite of what the Americans are saying about Col. Kadafi,” said Museveni, “there is no doubt that he and his colleagues have done a lot for their people, for instance, building 24,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) of Tarmac road in only 16 years and over 46,000 housing units in the last three years.”

Kadafi, returning Museveni’s visit, arrived in Uganda on Sept. 6 on his way back from the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Zimbabwe. His entourage flew into Entebbe in eight planes and included scores of armed guards who accompanied the Libyan leader throughout his visit, often breaking into chants of “Down, down, U.S.A.” and “Death to America.”

‘Partners in Struggle’

At a news conference in Uganda, Kadafi spoke of the military assistance provided to Museveni during his guerrilla war, saying, “We were partners in the struggle.”