Tarnished Pearl

Charges of wanton violence

Before the seven-truck convoy of Ugandan soldiers moved into Namu-gongo, the village was known primarily for its shrine commemorating the martyrdom of 45 Christians who were burned alive in 1885. But in a modern-day massacre, by the time the troops left last May they had ransacked the town, executed an Anglican priest and tortured and killed as many as 100 villagers. When army units swept north through the Karamoja region, there were reports of more atrocities. After driving more than 20,000 farmers and cattle breeders from their homes, the soldiers obliterated villages, killed livestock and destroyed fields so that nothing would be left for those brave enough to return.

"Cambodia, African-style." That is how some Westerners describe Uganda today, five years after the fall of Dictator Idi Amin Dada. They contend that the government of President Apollo Milton Obote, whom Amin deposed in 1971 and who returned to power in 1980, has caused the deaths of as many as 100,000 Ugandan civilians and brought another 150,000 to the brink of starvation in a ruthless campaign to wipe out guerrillas. "We had hoped that the country would continue to make progress away from the terrible Idi Amin years," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Elliott Abrams during a congressional hearing last week. "But in recent months repeated reports of large-scale civilian massacres, forced starvation and impeded humanitarian relief operations indicate that Uganda has one of the most serious human rights problems in the world today."

The Ugandan government responded that all the talk of human rights abuses was "highly distorted." It announced the suspension of a $100,000 program to train Ugandan officers in the U.S. and barred an American military attache from entering the country. Congress, meanwhile, took steps to slash $7 million from $9 million in aid to Uganda.

At one time known as the "Pearl of Africa," Uganda has been beset by tribal rivalries ever since it won its independence from Britain in 1962. The once powerful and privileged Baganda tribe in the south has chafed under a central government and army largely controlled by Langi and Acholi tribesmen from the north. The discontent has given rise to a ragtag insurgent movement that has tried to disrupt Obote's efforts to reassert control. The government has taken brutal countermeasures. Ugandan soldiers have destroyed villages and crops and herded civilians into detention camps in an effort, as Abrams put it, "to dry up the civilian sea that the guerrillas swim in."

U.S. officials say that the Ugandan army has never been adequately trained or disciplined. Incidents of random violence have increased in recent months, and some analysts suspect that the army may be out of Obote's control. Underfed and poorly paid, soldiers roam the country in gangs, setting up roadblocks to rape and rob hapless travelers. Funeral announcements on the radio and in the press refer more frequently now to "sudden death," a euphemism used when the deceased has been killed by the army. Says a U.S. expert: "They can't end the guerrilla movement so they seem determined to demoralize it by killing off civilians."

The Reagan Administration has frequently said that private pressure is more effective in reducing human rights abuses than public campaigns. U.S. officials were continuing to consult with the Obote government last week. But as a frustrated analyst observed, "We can't just sit here and wait for quiet diplomacy to work while people continue to be hacked to death."