State Dept checks beheading reports

Press, 29 August 1977, Page 8

State Dept checks beheading reports

NZPA-Reuter Washington Reports that three American tourists are missing in Uganda and may have been beheaded were being urgently checked out through diplomatic channels, the American State Department has said. The department said in a statement that checks were being made through the West German Embassy in Kampala, which looks after United States interests in Uganda, and United States embassies in neighbouring African countries. "The West Germans are still awaiting a formal reply from the Ugandan Govern-

ment,” the statement said. I “But their informal checks in Kampala have cast some 'doubts on the accuracy of' the report.” I A State Department j official said that first reports lof the incident landed about a week ago from a Ugandan refugee source in Nairobi who said that three American tourists were arrested in Kampala. The official said subsequent reports that the three unidentified tourists ! had been _ beheaded had not been corroborated, “but obviously we are continuing urgent efforts to learn the truth.”