Anti-Amin thrust takes vital dam

Press, 19 April 1979, Page 8

Anti-Amin thrust takes vital dam

NZPA-Reuter Kampala A Tanzanian “flying column” has captured the giant Owen Falls dam. the source of most of Uganda’s power supply, from remnants of Field-Marshal Idi Amin’s army. The Tanzanian spearhead of anti-Amin forces pressing east from Kampala abandoned its usual infantry-pace advance and raced to the strategic town of Jinja, where the dam bridges the Nile, in a motorised column.

The dam also carries a road bridge on the main road from Kampala to Kenya and the Indian Ocean — a road that must be opened so that food and fuel can be brought into landlocked Uganda.

News of the military success was given by Mr Akena P’Ojok, Minister of Power

and Communications in the Government of returned exiles whose Tanzanian-led army ousted Amin’s forces from the capital last Wednesday. The slow-moving bulk of the anti-Amin army has yet to push east and join up with the motorised force holding the dam. Small pockets of troops loyal to Amin are believed still to be at large in forests bordering the 80km route from Kampala to Jinja. But no serious resistance has been encountered since the fall of Kampala, when Amin’s army disintegrated. The industrial town of Jinja itself, where the new authorities are expected to consolidate their forces during the week, is believed to have been looted bare by fleeing pro-Amin troops.

Until the Owen Falls dam was secured, however, the Ugandans and the Kenyans, who get 15 per cent of their electricity from it, had not excluded the danger of sabo tage at the power station or of its breaking down for lack of oil for the generators. Diplomats in Nairobi said Western Powers such as the United States and Britain, anxious to help the country, might have to consider flying in supplies, although Kampala’s Entebbe Airport was damaged in the fighting and has no functioning navigation aids. The new Government has brought out the first issue of its “Uganda Times” newspaper, replacing one called the “Voice of Uganda” under Field-Marshal Amin.