Ugandan troops in university massacre, “Observer” reports

Press, 9 August 1976, Page 8

Ugandan troops in university massacre, “Observer” reports

NZPA-Reuter

London

The “Observer*' Sunday newspaper, London, said yesterday that more than 100 students at Makarere University in Uganda had been massacred by President Idi Amin’s troops, and that up to 700 others were feared dead.

The weekly’s correspondent. David Martin, said in a ! front-page report from Lusaka that more than 1000 other students were wounded last week “in the worst single act of carnage since Amin came to power.” The report said the Makarere students had been the most consistent centre of opposition to President; Amin. Quoting eyewitnesses,, it gave an account of a' series of incidents which; began last January when an; army captain visited the; campus and verbally abused; the students. According to the “Ob-1 server.” several other in-| cidents followed, some of them involving President; Amin’s son, Taban, who had j been enrolled in the engin-j cering faculty even though | he “had received no previous formal education.” The “Observer” quoted Makarere students as saying that Taban’s behaviour at the university had provoked the breaking point in the confrontation. Last Tuesday morning the students assembled to drawl up a petition to the university’s vice-chancellor about)their grievances, but Taban; telephoned his father to report what was happening “and that resulted in the i massacre,” the “Observer” 1 said. '

-: The students were sur-1 i ! rounded by troops armed! .! with automatic weapons. , [ ( student eyewitness told the > “Observer”: • “Some were shot on the, fispot. Six died instantly. The) I others were told to lie down, . and they obeyed. Then the .beatings started, terrible fl beatings. “The troops moved among J the students, raping women. [[Some of the women who resisted had their breasts i slashed off. "Some of the students [[who were in the hails of i residence were thrown from the third-floor and fourth'ifloor windows. Some broke limbs. Others died.” The “Observer” said that 1 ■ the troops then left the' [campus, but sealed off the: entrances so that throughout' the day and most of the] night the injured lay in theL open, screaming and calling' for help. “Orders had been given i that they were not to re- I ceive medical treatment,” i the “Observer” said. “That • order was apparently still < lin force on Friday.” According to the Sunday < (newspaper, a second attack 1 ion Makarere by 200 soldiers f followed last Wednesday, ’ this time led by President i Amin’s son, Taban. “Again there was terrific terror and 1 butchery,” the “Observer” ' quoted a Ugandan as saying, i

According to the report, | the Makarere students intended to try to rally stu- ; dents to return to the (Campus and continue their /defiance of President Amin, .1 “But so horrendous has been the carnage that Amin [ has probably totally crushed [ the last centre of open oppo- ' sition to him in Uganda,” , the “Observer” concluded. A report from Bonn says [ the West German Foreign [ Ministry is investigating a ’{newspaper report that a . West German economics ' teacher was arrested and t badly beaten by Ugandan security police in Kampala. A spokesman confirmed that Mr Dietrich Babeck, aged 28, a teacher at Kampala University, was arI rested last month, and the (Ministry was awaiting a full ■report on the incident from ■the West German Embassy jin Uganda. The newspaper, “Bild,” said that Mr Babeck was picked up on a Kampala street because “He looked so Jewish” and taken to a villa on the city’s outskirts. ■ He was whipped and iclubbed and made to confess that he was working for the secret services of Israel and West Germany, the newspaper said. Four days after his arrest, he escaped and found refuge with West Germany’s Deputy Ambassador.