Obote to go back

Press, 15 June 1979, Page 5

Obote to go back

NZPA-Reuter Kampala

The former Ugandan President, Dr Milton Obote, who was deposed by Idi Amin, is planning to return home after eight years of exile in neighbouring Tanzania, the “Uganda Times” has said. Quoting informed sources the Government newspaper said the new Ugandan President (Professor Yusufu Lule) had assured ~'r Obote that he had the same right as anv Ugandan to return home and help • reconstruction and rehabilitation.

Dr Obote was overthrown in 1971 by Amin. The Tanzanian President (Dr Julius Nyerere) has consistently denied that he plans to reinstate Dr Obote as leader of Uganda.

The “Uganda Times” said that at a meeting last weekend in Tanzania between Dr Nyerere and Professor Lule, the Tanzanian leader had said it would be in the best interests of both countries if Dr Obote returned home.

It quoted President Nyerere as saying that a return to Kampala by Dr Obote would rule out speculation that he might be plotting against the Lule Government.

Bob Astles, the Britishborn former aide to Idi Amin, is being held in a bare,windowless, cell and ted one meal a day while awaiting trial on a murder charge, according to a prison official in the capital, Kampala. The Commissioner of Pris-

ons (Mr George Sentamu) yesterday said all the cells at Kampala’s Luzira Prison, which houses more than 1000 prisoners, had been stripped of furniture, blankets, and sheets by Amin’s troops before they fled the capital two months ago.

The inmates receive one meal a day of potatoes and cabbage, and are allowed to have food and other items sent in to them. So far noone has given such aid to the 55-year-old Astles, according to Mr Sentamu.

The grey-haired native of Kent was extradicted from Kenya last Saturday and charged on Monday with murdering e fisherman, Pasco Mukasa, last year. He has been remanded in custody until June 25. Murder is punishable by death in Uganda.

Astles is in a maximum-se-curity section of the prison with 17 other former Amin supporters. Their cells have no windows, the doors are solid steet.