Uganda, Kenyans ready for talks

Press, 29 July 1976, Page 8

Uganda, Kenyans ready for talks

NZPA-Reuter Nairobi Alter weeks of warlike talk between Uganda and Kenya, an Organisation of African Unity peacemaker is expected to visit the two countries immediately.

Both Governments have j indicated that they are will- i ’.ng to have the O.A.U. 5 mediator, the organisation's secretary-general (Mr Wit- 1 iam Eteki Mboumoua), at- 1 tempt to settle the dispute 1 President Idi Amin ofjt Uganda was quoted on Tues-i fay as saying that his I troops would never invade i Kenya. 1 The Kenyan Foreign Min- ( ister (Th Munyua Waiyaki) ;aid the Nairobi Government i tad agreed to have Mr Eteki 1 come to mediate. But Di Waiyaki spelled out a tough set of conditions 1 for ths return of peace and normal relations between i Kenva and its landlocked neighbour The dispute flared after Israeli troops raided Uganda’s Entebbe Airport on July 4 to rescue more than 100 hos- i tages from an airliner hijacked by pro—.Palestinian 1 *

guerrillas. The Israeli planes i refuelled in Nairobi on theirway home. War-clouds seemed to! hang over East Africa as! Uganda accused Kenya of j blockading its fuel supplies, and threatened to invade. Kenya complained about the treatment of its citizens in Uganda, and said that Ugandan forces were massing on the border. Other African countries have been affected by. the feud. Rwanda’s Finance Minister (Mr Denys Ntirugirimbabazi) has been in Dar-es-Salaam, trying to arrange an alternative route for badly-needed fuel and other imports which normally pass through Kenya and Uganda. He said Rwanda had received no petrol supplies for more than three weeks. One of the demands set out bv the Kenyan Foreign

Minister was that President Amin stop holding Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan and Zaire hostage by confiscating goods on their way through Uganda. Dr Waiyaki also demanded that President Amin drop his claims to part of Kenya’s territory, stop rhe killing and abuse of Kenyans in Uganda, and remove his troops from the border area. He said that Uganda was welcome to buy petrol from Kenya, but it would have to pay cash and make its own transportation arrangements, because of large outstanding debts and the fears of Kenyan lorrv drivers, who have refused to risk the trip to Uganda. President Amin's statement that his troops would not cross an inch into Kenyan territory was made during a meeting with a Libyan diplomat, and reported over Radio Kampala.