International Amin threatens to fight over petrol

Press, 26 July 1976, Page 7

International Amin threatens to fight over petrol

NZPA-Reuter

\airobi

President Idi Amin of Uganda yesterday threatened that L ganda was ready to fight against Kenya if it was starved by blockade of crucial fuel supplies and other commodities.

According to Uganda Radio. President Amin said Uganda would have no alternative but to fight for its survival if Kenya kept up the blockade. Observers in Nairobi said ’he Ugandan leader’s warning. made in a telephone conversation with the retired Israeli Lieutenant-Colonel, Baruch Bar-Lev. was the clearest threat yet that he was ready to go to war with Kenya. President Amin has accused Kenya of blockading supplies of fuel and other goods that can reach land-

a locked Uganda only by roac d from the Kenyan coast -I Kenya has denied the si charge, but it says thai p Uganda should pay for the goods in hard currency, anc di that Uganda still owes i-‘money. e Uganda Radio reporter d President Amin's telephone I, conversation with Colone e Bar-Lev, who was head ol e the Israeli military mission r in Kampala before the President expelled all Israelis ir :-(1972. g The radio announcement r came after a report by the 1- official Kenya News Agencj

Il that electricity supplies from Uganda's Owen Falls hydroI electric station had been cut i off on Friday. Uganda said ; supplies of electricity to Kenya and elsewhere might 'be interrupted without notice. Most factories in both Uganda and Rwanda are closed, private cars have disappeared from the roads, and President Amin has even halted all troop movements because of the lack of petrol. Rwandan officials have ■jgone to Nairobi for emergency talks with Kenya to jtry to reroute the desper-■at’ely-needed petrol. A United Press International correspondent, William Johnson, reported from the Rwandan capital of Kigali that only two petrol pumps in the entire country were operating. Hundreds of trucks and tears were lying idle for I want of fuel, factories were closed, and even vital electricity supplies to hospitals were interrupted as petrol reserves in that country! I shrunk to only a few days supply. President. Amin has been holding talks with Arab am[bassauors in Kampala to find | new sources of foreign currency to buy petrol. ' The crisis, which diploI mats described as the most i serious Field-Marshal Amin [ I has faced since he came to power more than five years I ago. was sparked by i Uganda.’s deteriorating relaitions with Kenya and by President Amin’s unruly 'troops, who have been robbing and beating Kenyan I truck drivers. The drivers now refuse to | move petrol into Uganda, : even if Field-Marshal Amin ' can find the hard cash to pay for them. In turn, the [Ugandan leader has allowed ! his troops to hijack oil tankiers bound for Rwanda via ! Uganda. The Nairobi newspaper, .'the “Daily Nation,” reported 'that the Ugandan Army “has 'ground to a halt. Idi Amin •[has directed a complete halt [of movement by military vehicles.” I