Ugandan guerrillas want seats for co-operation

Press, 7 August 1985, Page 10

Ugandan guerrillas want seats for co-operation

NZPA-AP London The leader of Uganda's main guerrilla group says he will co-operate with the country’s new leaders only if his National Resistance Army gets half the seats on the ruling military council. The British Broadcasting Corporation reported yesterday that the guerrilla leader, Yoweri Museveni, had telephoned its office in London to announce his demand and also said he was ready to meet Uganda’s interim head of State, Lieu-tenant-General Tito Okello. The 8.8. C. also quoted Mr Museveni as saying that the rebel ‘forces had been ordered to continue to observe a ceasefire for the time being. It did not say where Mr Museveni was when he made the call, although

there have been reports that he is either in Sweden or in east Africa. General Okello is chairman of the military council that took power after the overthrow of President Milton Obote in a military coup on July 27. The National Resistance Army, the guerrilla wing of Museveni’s National Resistance Movement, began fighting Obote’s Government in 1981. General Okello has urged guerrillas to come out of the bush, lay down their arms and support the new Government. He has sworn in Colonel Wilson Toko, chief executive of Uganda Airlines and an ex-Air Force commander, as Minister of Defence.

Toko’s appointment ended speculation that Mr Museveni might be offered the defence portfolio. Mr Museveni’s forces welcomed the coup but have not yet declared whether they will now permanently stop fighting and co-operate with the new Government. The reluctance of antiObote guerrillas to lay down their arms has posed a problem for the new regime. General Okello has invited leaders of Mr Museveni’s forces and two other main guerrilla groups — the Uganda Freedom Movement and the Uganda National Redemption Movement — to attend a “roundtable conference” on Monday.