Blasts rock capital

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 9

Blasts rock capital

NZPA-Reuter Kampala Heavily armed soldiers guarded key installations in Kampala yesterday after a wave of guerrilla attacks which cut off power and put the State radio off the air. Residents in the Ugandan capital said they heard heavy firing and several explosions during the night. Policemen and troops manned roadblocks yesterday after three guerrillas attacked the city centre headquarters of President Milton Obote’s Uganda People’s Congress Party with automatic rifles on Thursday morning. One of the gunmen was killed by troops but the other two fled. The clandestine Uganda Freedom Movement claimed responsibility for the raids and said they would use any method to end Mr Obote s three-year-old rule. The guerrillas put Radio Uganda off the air when they attacked a transmitting station outside Kampala, killing three soldiers and damaging generators and electrical equipment. Broadcasts later resumed. Electricity supplies to Kampala and south and west Uganda were cut off when a main pylon 16km east of the city was destroyed on Tuesday night. Power to Kampala was restored after 13 hours, but engineers said the south and west would be without electricitv for a week. Half the shops in' Kampala’s centre remained closed . yesterday after an exodus of workers on Thursdav left the city virtually deserted by late afternoon.