December 1976 - UGANDA

lnternal Unrest and Other Developments - Agreement on Ending of Dispute with Kenya -Arms Agreement with Soviet Union

It was officially announced in Kampala on Oct.26 that President Amin had instructed the security forces to "mount a strong operation to track down bandits" (or "kondos") that with immediate effect everybody in the country was required to carry his or her identification card with him or her; and that those found without valid identification cards would be rounded up and taken to farms where they would perform productive work.

The President was also reported to have declared that the penalty for "kondos" or highway robbery was death; to have directed the security forces to shoot on sight any "kondo" who might try to run away; and to have added that any security officers found to have sold gems to, or be involved with, "kondos" would be shot by firing squads, and that foreigners who had no proper Identification documents would be treated as "kondos".

Earlier, reports were made, especially in the British, Kenyan and Tanzanian press, of opposition to President Amin's regime and of a confrontation between the President and leading members of the Ugandan Army (although these latter reports remained unsubstantiated). Reports of the killing of at least 20 students at MakerereUniversity by Ugandan soldiers on Aug. 3-4 were subsequently dismissed by President Amin as "lies".

Professor Bryan Langlands (47), who had taught at MakerereUniversity for 22 years, had been a professor of geography and had been appointed by President Amin to head a commission of inquiry into university incidents in March 1976, was early in August removed from his post and ordered to leave the country. After his return to Britain he stated on Aug. 5 that a Kenyan student, Miss Esther Chesire, had been shot dead by members of Uganda's Public Safety Unit in March, and that a warden at the university, who had been a witness to Miss Chesire's disappearance, was in June found shot dead in a river.

Mr Olema Allimandi, former Ugandan ambassador to the United States and permanent representative at the United Nations, who was described as chairman of a Ugandan Council of National Reconciliation, in a statement recorded in Dar-es-Salsam and broadcast by Danish radio on Sept. 1, called on Ugandans to unite with the object of overthrowing President Amin who, he said, was "the chief butcher of the Ugandan people".

Radio Uganda announced on Sept.17 that security forces had defused explosive charges, which were alleged to be of British mike, at electrical installations in tbree areas of Uganda, and that the Government had received warning that "enemies, including British imperiallsts and their collaborators ",were trying to disrupt electricity supplies.

On Oct. 6 the Nigeria Observer in Lagos reported that Mr John Sawaniko, editor-in-chief of the Roman Catholic daily Munno, had died in prison in Kampala, having been arrested six weeks earlier with three of his colleagues after printing leaflets allegedly inciting sedition and his newspaper having been closed down. (An earlier editor-in-chief of Muatto, Father Clement Kiggundu, had according to the Nigerian report been assassinated by Ugandan soldiers in 1974.)

On Oct.20 the body of Mr Jimmy Parma, a press photographer employed by the Ugandan Ministry of Information who had been arrested on Oct.14, 1976, was reported to have been found riddled by bullets in a forest outside Kampala. Mr Parma was later (on Nov. 5) reported to have taken pictures of the partly-burnt body of Mrs Dora Blech (74), who had been taken to hospital after landing in Kampala in a hijacked Air France airbus on June 28 and of whose fate the Ugandan authorities had denied all knowledge.

On Oct.29 it was reported that saboteurs had broken into Uganda's telecommunications centre on Konge Hill (near Kampala) and had cut cables with the result that all links with other centres were severed for 12 hours.

The Position of British Citizens in Uganda

Following the British Government's decision to sever diplomatic relations with Uganda President Amin declared on July 29 that there could be no talks on holding negotiations on the question of compensation for British assets in Uganda (involving about £100,000,000, the bulk of which was for property confiscated from Asians expelled in 1972A). At the same time he stated that Britons in Uganda were free to stay there but that any who did not abide by the country's laws would be "dealt with accordingly".

Among a number of persons who had been accused of subversive activities but were released from detention during August was Mr Graham Clegg, a British farmer, who had been under arrest from July 27 to Aug.25.

On Oct. 7 President Amin addressed 172 Britons-among them missionaries, businessmen and professional men-in Kampala, assuring them that he would do everything possible to ensure good relations between Uganda and Britain, and also with Kenya. The British community had submitted to him a memorandum requesting the easing of travel facilities to and from Kenya, the extension of immigration permits for Britons working in Uganda, and an improved supply of food and other goods then dIfficult to obtain in Uganda.

Uganda’s Strained Relations with Israel

The Israeli authorities on Aug. 19 dismissed as "of no significance" a demand sent by President Amin to the Government of Israel for compensation "for the life and property destroyed, as well as for the expenses which Uganda incurred on hospitallty for the hostages" in connexion with the seizure by pro-Palestinian guerrillas and diversion to Entebbe airport in June 1976 of an Air France airbus, most of the hostages from which were removed from Uganda by Israeli troops on July 8-4.

Later, President Amin's personal Commodore jet, bought from Israel in 1971, was returned to that country on Sept. 6, and on Sept.30 the Tel Aviv daily Maariv reported that Uganda had also returned to Israeli 10 Israeli-made trainer aircraft for which Uganda had no spare parts left.

Ending of Dispute with Kenya

The dispute between Uganda and Kenya, which had intensified during July, was settled through negotiations between delegations, led on the one hand by Colonel Dusman Sabuni, Uganda's Mm's ter of Industry and Power, and Captain Noah Mohammed, Minister of Commerce, and on the other by Dr Munyna Waiyaki, Kenya's Foreign Minister, and Mr Charles Njonjo, Attorney General, leading to a statement signed in Nairobi on Aug. 6 in the presence of Mr William Eteki Mboumoua, the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity.

Under this settlement it was provided that all threats of the use of force should cease forthwith; (ii) the state of belligerency should end, troops stationed at the two countries' common border should be withdrawn and both countries should stop attacking each other in the press and on the radio; (iii) Uganda would pay compensation for loss of life and property arising out of the seizure of Kenyan assets in Uganda; (iv) a committee was to be set up to examine claims to money owed so that debts could be settled swiftly; and the flow of traffic between the two countries should be allowed "without impediment".

The agreement was formally approved by Presidents Amin and Kenyatta on Aug. 7.

About 100 Kenyans returned from Uganda to their country on Aug. 9, among them some 75 who had been held in "protective custody "since July 19, and also 24 tanker drivers and crew members. By Aug. 12 oil supplies from Kenya to Uganda were reported to have been resumed. On Ang. 27 petrol was sold again in Uganda for the first time in a month, while on the same date all Ugandan troops were reported to have been withdrawn from Kenya's border.

On Sept.22 it was aunounced at a meeting of officials from both countries in Nairobi that Uganda had renounced all territorial claim" against Kenya and had fully restored the supply of electric power to that country.

New Agreement with Soviet Union

During a visit to Uganda by an eight-member military delegation from the Soviet Union, a new agreement between that country and Uganda was signed on Sept.28. Aithough its details were not divulged, it was reported to cover the supply to Uganda by the Soviet Union of long-range aircraft and "certain other hardware ".-(Times - Daily Telegraph -Financial Times - Guardian - International Herald Tribune -Le Monde - Neue Zurcher Zeitung - BBC Summary of World Broadcasts)