Tanzania vows to topple Uganda’s 'idiot dictator’

Press, 8 November 1978, Page 9

Tanzania vows to topple Uganda’s 'idiot dictator’

NZPA y Dar-es« Salaam The Soviet President( Mr Leonid Brezhnev) has stepped into the Tanzanian-Ugandan border war with a very encouraging message to the Lgandan President (Mr Idi Amin). Uganda Radio has reported, as Tanzania vowed to take steps to topple the Ugandan leader.

| The radio, monitored in I Nairobi, Kenya, said the | message was the first reI ceived by Field-Marsha! | Amin from another Head of I State since the border war I began a week ago and indi- | cated Moscow’s desire for | peace. I The contents of the mesI sage were not disclosed. In Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania has indicated in its Government-owned press it will not be content to drive President Amin’s forces from Tanzania but will take steps I to overthrow the “idiot I dictator.” I Ugandan troops crossed the border into Tanzania last Monday and President Amin

il announced he was annexing 21153 sq km of Tanzania’s - north-western territory. V According to unconfirmed y reports in Nairobi, President r |Amin has dispatched mem- ■ bers of his country’s “suiHcide battalion” and a mechanised regiment to positions -jin the rear of the battle (zone with orders to shoot . ; any Ugandan solidier re--5 treating or attempting to t desert. ; Ugandan soldiers on the i front, according to Ugandan s exiles, are without dry food t rations and morale is low. Mr Brezhnev’s message 1 followed remarks by the t American Secretary of State il(Mr Cyrus Vance) last week

gi calling for withdrawal of! s i Ugandan troops from Tanzania. Uganda Radio said President Amin warned the t ! super-powers to stay out of J the conflict because it is .{strictly an African affair. i-l The “Daily News,” Dar-es-s Salaam’s Government-owned e! newspaper, said that until 11 the invasion Tanzanians ‘-were willing to suffer the' d j “idiot” as a neighbour I whose utterances and ace'tions were detested but n whose fate would be decided j by the people of Uganda ■ themselves. e i “But now that he has giordered his troops to kill e .’our people and occupy part Jof our territory makes it: -{necessary for us to deal, j him in a manner that will ■ {put an end to this sad: | story,” the paper said in an ’ (editorial. : African leaders, mean-( (while, have launched a dip-! . lomatic offensive to end the I bloodshed. Three top African! I envoys arrived in Kampala, j ; the Ugandan capital, for: {talks with President Amin,! {and the Kenyan President’ {(Mr Daniel Arap Moi) urged! 'peace in a telephone conver-i i sation with the Ugandan (leader.