Amin says he has fuel to fight

Press, 28 July 1976, Page 8

Amin says he has fuel to fight

NZPA-Reuter Nairobi President Idi Amin of Uganda has now announced that his army has enough fuel to fight for three months.

Three days ago he said that Uganda had only enough fuel for five days, but this referred only to [reserves for the civilian population . The President, quoted by Radio Uganda, said yesterday: “Uganda is capable of fighting for even three months with enough fuel.” His statement was apparently aimed at countering speculation about the effects of Uganda's fuel shortage on its military strength. On Sunday President Amin said Uganda might have to “resort to desperate action out of the need to survive” because of what he said was a Kenyan blockade. Kenya denies it has put a stranglehold on its landlocked neighbour. In his statement, he called

on the secretary-general ofj the United Nations (Dr Kurti Waldheim) and the secretary-! general of the Organisation of African Unity (Mr William Eteki Mboumoua) to send fact-finding missions to the area to “verify the whole alarming situation which is threatening world peace and order.” Kenya’s Foreign Minister (Dr Munyua Waiyaki), in an interview broadcast by British television on Monday, said that the Ugandan economy “has been shattered by the Ugandans' own actions.” He said “President Amin is a very ambitious man who would like to rule not only Uganda but also Kenya and Tanzania and then Somalia.” Dr Waiyaki said that Uganda had received 30 Mirage fighters from Libya,

and 10 more would follow.: Kenya was watching a build-! up of Ugandan troops and! tanks on its border, he said.! In the event of war, lies [said “Kenya will not sit idly! i—we will cross the border,! block it, and supply no petrol' and no food."

The independent “Kenya Standard” said that President Amin had fled from his command post in Kampala on Saturday when a group of heavily armed troops from one of his crack regiments had come looking for him. Intermittent firing lasting several hours had ensued, it said.

But Radio Uganda on Monday night said it bad merely been President Amin and his family practising with “the most modern and sophisticated anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.”