Uganda, Tanzania dispute mediators

Press, 20 February 1979, Page 9

Uganda, Tanzania dispute mediators

NZPA-Reuter Nairobi r The Ugandan President! (Field-Marshal Idi Amin) has accepted Libya’s offer to mediate in the UgandaTanzania border war and ordered his troops to cease all but self-defence oper- < ations, according to Radio Uganda. But the Tanzanian President (Dr Julius Nyerere) , was reported to have spurned the Libyan offer i and to have said he favoured peace efforts by i the Organisation of African : Unity, which is to meet in ‘

i Nairobi tomorrow to discuss I the conflict. Uganda and Tanzania went to war in late October after Ugandan troops invaded 1200 sq km of northwestern Tanzania. The Ugandan units later withdrew, but Tanzania sent troops into Uganda in recent weeks and sporadic fighting has continued. A Ugandan Foreign Ministry statement, read in a Uganda Radio broadcast monitored in Nairobi, said Field-Marshal Amin was “very grateful” for the Lib-

yan offer, and accepted it “for the sake of peace and reconciliation.” The broadcast also said Uganda would be represented at the O.A.U. meeting in Nairobi, and there were reports that President Amin might attend. But in the Tanzanian capital of Dar-es-Salaam, Government sources, who requested anonymity, said there was no possibility of a personal meeting between the two African Presidents during O.A.U. deliberations there.