Uganda ready for mediator

Press, 7 November 1978, Page 8

Uganda ready for mediator

: NZPA-Reuter Nairobi Uganda is prepared to, accept Libyan mediation in! its bitter border dispute with! Tanzania, Uganda Radio has reported. It reported that President! Idi Amin had received ai message from the Libyan I leader. Colonel Muammar! Gadaffi, delivered by a special envoy, and later an-} jnounced that he was pre-! ! pared to discuss all prob-1 llems between Uganda and! Tanzania provided the TanIzanian President (Dr Julius iNyerere) was also ready to iaccept mediation. The envoy, the Libyan I Minister of Cult ure and I Information (Mr Mohamed I Abdul-Qassem Zawi) is exI pected in Dar-es-Salaam | today for talks with Presi[dent Nyerere. ! Uganda Radio also said ! there was no longer any j fighting in the 30km strip of i ! Tanzanian territory occupied ! by Ugandan troops last! (week. A military spokesman was! I quoted as appealing to in-1 j habitants of the area to go! !back to work. ! The radio reported earlier! jthat Ugandan troops had! I come under heavy bomb-} ardment from Tanzanian! forces south of the river! after blowing up the only! bridge at Kyaka. But the radio added: “The! . Ugandan soldiers were just j laughing at them while j smoking and drinking Ugan-i dan coffee.” I The spokesman claimed; 'that a section of the Tanzanian Army was cut off by Ugandan troops and starving, and called on them to surrender immediately, saying they would be treated as ■ brothers. Tanzania yesterday i claimed to have destroyed two Ugandan tanks in an exchange of fire as it attempted to dislodge more than 2000 Ugandan troops from the occupied area be- : tween the border and the Kagera River. A Tanzanian Government communique gave no other details. ,