‘Very ill’ Lule in London hospital

Press, 10 July 1979, Page 8

‘Very ill’ Lule in London hospital

NZPA-Reuter London The deposed Ugandan Head of State, Professor Usufu Lule, flew into London yesterday and was taken straight by ambulance to London’s Hammersmith Hospital. ’ <

“I think he is very ill” said the 69-year-old Professor Lule’s son, Waswa. “He has a blood disorder. I have not been told exactly what is the matter with him.”

Professor Lule, who was President of Uganda for six weeks after the ousting of Idi Amin, had flown from Dar-es-Salaam, ’ the Tanzanian capital. He had been seen off at the airport-there by the Tanzanian President (Dr Julius Nyerere), who was alleged to have held him in Tanzania against his will. The two contemporaries at Edinburgh University had

little to say to each other as they’ walked across the tarmac.

Members of Professor Lule’s family in London and his former Commerce Minister, Mr Robert Serumaga, in Nairobi, have said the former- President was being 1 1., in Dar-es-Salaam until he agreed to sign a statement renouncing any claim to the Ugandan Presidency.

Tanzanian officials have not denied the allegations. They have merely said he was perfectly safe and living in comfort in a wing of Dr Nyerere’s State House.

Professor Lule was elected chairman of the ruling Uganda National Liberation Front last March, and he automatically became President when Tanzanian forces accompanied by Ugandan rebels ousted Amin’s regime. The U.N.L.F. was formed in Tanzania from about 20 disparate Ugandan exile groups. After two controversial Cabinet reshuffles in the space of a week, Professor Lule was voted out of office on June 20, and replaced as President by Mr Godfrey Binaisa.