Uganda coup: Okello starts giving orders

Press, 30 July 1985, Page 10

Uganda coup: Okello starts giving orders

NZPA-Reuter Kampala Uganda’s Armed Forces chief, General Tito Okello, has ordered soldiers to return to their barracks after outbreaks of looting after a military coup that toppled President Milton Obote two days ago. In a radio broadcast, he asked the people to have confidence in the coup, suggesting that he was the most senior military man behind it. A few hours earlier his namesake and fellow Acholi tribesman, Brigadier Bazilio Olara Okello, was introduced on the radio as “the leader” of the rebellion. The brigadier, who led an Army mutiny in northern Uganda last week and entered the capital with his troops on Saturday, announced that the constitution was suspended and warned Kampala residents to stay at home.

Whoever is in charge has yet to announce the shape of the new Government. All day yesterday troops were seen in the capital making off with radios, alcohol and clothes looted from shops. Any car parked on the street had been driven away by midday yesterday, onlookers said. Ugandans contacted in the main towns of Masaka, to the south-west, and Jinja, to the east, said looting had spread to their towns but it was not clear if troops regularly stationed there backed the coup. Speaking in broken English, General Okello, aged 65, said: “All Ugandan citizens, I will like you to have confidence in the military coup.” He said Mr Obote, who fled across the border into Kenya, had created confusion in the Army and had used young soldiers to murder people.

“The coup has not affected you as citizens,” General Okello said. He ordered all soldiers to return to the barracks. Until yesterday, all announcements had been made either by or on behalf of Brigadier Okello. Although General Okello appeared to be the most senior officer backing the coup, he gave the impression he was not involved in the actual military moves that overthrew Mr Obote. He had begun his address to the nation by saying: “Am just arriving from safari (Swahili for journey) upcountry. I heard that a military coup has taken part in Kampala.” At least four civilians were shot dead and onlookers saw their bullet-riddled bodies in the city centre. A former Ugandan President, Godfrey Binaisa, in exile in London, told Reuters he was ready to serve the new Administra-

tion in any capacity if asked “by those who matter, by those who are in control.” Mr Binaisa was president from June 1979 to May 1980 during the period between the overthrow of Idi Amin and elections which brought Mr Obote to power. He was forcibly removed from office in a palace coup by a faction of the Armydominated interim Government of National Unity and was forced into exile. Libya has recognised the new regime in Kampala, the first country to do so. Amin, whose men killed and tortured thousands of Ugandans during his sevenyear rule, said he backed the coup. From exile in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, Amin urged the officers in power in Kampala not to exact vengeance on Mr Obote’s Langi tribesmen in the Army. Amin said yesterday that he was ready to return home to rescue Uganda.