Obote police in jail

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 6

Obote police in jail

NZPA-AP Kampala Uganda’s new military rulers had put more than 1000 members of the ousted President’s secret police and bodyguard in a maximum security jail, prison administration sources said yesterday. The northern Army commander who led rebellious troops in the coup of July 27 was named Armed Forces chief yesterday, and the Catholic Primate offered to preside at a peace conference to reconcile Uganda’s military and political factions.

The prison sources said that the round-up was mainly of members of the National Security Agency, as the secret police are called. They said that the men had been taken to Luzira Prison, near Kampala.

Their account conformed with a report in “Munno,” a Kampala daily newspaper supported by the Catholic Church. It said that 1072 people had been taken to Luzira.

Since the coup against the President, Milton Obote, military authorities have called on all members of the security agency and the Presidential bodyguard to turn themselves in with their weapons. Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga, the Archbishop of Kampala, said in his first statement since the coup that the people had suffered enough. He deplored the looting and bloodshed that accompanied the take-over, imploring political leaders and guerrilla commanders to attend a peace conference with one national motive of healing Uganda’s wounds. Lieutenant-General Tito Okello, the interim Chief of State, has proposed such a conference. Most political and guerrilla factions have endorsed the idea but have not agreed on a date, place or agenda. A second Ugandan rebel group promised yesterday

to lay down its arms and back the new military Government but the position of the main guerrilla group, the National Resistance Army, remained unclear. Radio Uganda said that Moses Ali, the leader of the National Rescue Front, a small guerrilla force in the remote West Nile region, had promised to lay down arms and had appealed to the N.R.A. to do likewise.

The Military Council has appealed to rebel groups to stop fighting and join the new regime.

On Wednesday the Federal Democratic Movement, a small and shadowy organisation, circulated pamphlets in Kampala saying that it was prepared to take part in the round-table peace talks that the Military Council has proposed for Monday in Kampala. But the N.R.A., the best organised and biggest of the guerrilla groups, has not made public its view on the proposed talks, apart from a demand by its leader, Yoweri Museveni, for half the seats on the Military Council. The Council considers it vital that the N.R.A. declares a cease-fire and works with it if Uganda is to achieve unity. The N.R.A. has been fighting for four years, asserting that the elections in December, 1980, which returned Mr Obote to power had been rigged.

Mr Obote’s downfall removes the N.R.A.'s raison d’etre. Western diplomats said that Mr Museveni apparently hoped to use his military strength and support in the bush to win more influence in the running of the country. The cease-fire proclaimed by the National Rescue Front came as no surprise, since informed sources say that N.R.F. rebels entered the capital after the coup on July 27 and have been absorbed into the military units that control it.