Uganda Changing of the Guard in Kampala

By JANICE C. SIMPSON.

As Haitians took to the streets to protest years of oppression under the Duvalier dynasty, the people of Uganda last week welcomed a new government that promised a sharp break with that country's brutal past. Thousands of Ugandans gathered outside the cream-colored Parliament building to watch as Rebel Leader Yoweri Museveni was sworn in as President just three days after his insurgents routed the forces of the military government that had seized power in a coup only six months earlier. A hush fell over the crowd as Museveni, dressed in the unadorned fatigues of an army private, took the oath of office from the Chief Justice of Uganda's Supreme Court. Then, his hand still resting on a Bible, he declared, "No one can think that what is happening today, what has been happening in the last few days, is a mere change of the guard. This is a fundamental change in the politics of our country."

Appealing for international aid to help rebuild his ravaged country, Museveni pledged at the outset to maintain Uganda's policy of nonalignment with the super powers and to improve the country's economic development by encouraging a mix of state and private enterprises. The new President also promised a return to parliamentary democracy and a rejection of tribal partisanship. He emphasized that his main goal was to restore respect for human rights, which have been openly abused in Uganda during the past 20 years. Museveni warned that those responsible for past atrocities would be punished.

There were signs that Museveni meant what he said. After past coups in Uganda, victorious troops have raped and plundered with abandon, but this time strict orders were issued against looting, along with a threat to shoot offenders. For the most part, the orderly soldiers of his National Resistance Army obeyed. That alone impressed many observers. The Presidents of neighboring Kenya, Zaire and Rwanda issued a joint communique expressing their satisfaction with the progress the Museveni government had made toward restoring peace and security in Uganda.

Although both the U.S. and Britain initially expressed concern that Museveni would steer Uganda to the left, they have hinted at approval of the new government's moves to date. The Reagan Administration, said a State Department spokesman, was "encouraged by the fact that the National Resistance Army appears to be disciplined and has restored order to those areas of Uganda that it has controlled." Some wary Ugandans, however, have adopted a cautious attitude. "I cannot say what lies ahead of us," said Father Cyprian Lwanga, chancellor of Rubaga Cathedral in Kampala. "It seems that Museveni has a good program, but we must wait and see. We have had so many coups, so many governments. I just don't know."

Ever since it gained independence from Britain in 1962, Uganda has been racked by bouts of tribal war, political ineptitude and state-approved brutality that badly eroded the once lustrous prospects of a country that Explorer Henry Stanley called "the pearl of Africa." Uganda probably reached its nadir under the infamous Idi Amin Dada, who seized power in 1971 from the country's first leader, Apollo Milton Obote. During Amin's eight-year reign of terror, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people were killed, and thousands more were forced into exile. After the dictator expelled the country's Asians, who traditionally controlled Ugandan commerce, the economy collapsed. Production of coffee alone, the country's primary source of foreign income, plummeted 40% during Amin's tenure.

A coalition of opposition groups, aided by neighboring Tanzania, finally overthrew Amin in 1979 but then fell to bickering among themselves. Obote eventually emerged to lead the country, but the bloodshed continued. Last July the army, led by General Tito Okello, ousted Obote.

Museveni, who had studied economics and politics at the University of Dar es Salaam, returned in exile to Tanzania during the Amin era. He came back to serve as Defense Minister following Amin's fall but withdrew into the bush five years ago, when Obote won an election that was widely regarded as rigged. There, Museveni says, he founded his National Resistance Army with just 27 men and rifles. Since then, his forces have grown to 8,500 well-armed soldiers. Many of them are the young, orphaned children of the more than half a million people killed under Amin and Obote. They are fiercely loyal to their leader. "I fight for Uganda because Museveni is my father," said Sylaz Kazora, a twelve-year-old rebel soldier. "I will die for him. Not for the country--for him."

Museveni, 41, finally met with General Okello in Nairobi, Kenya, last Dec. 17 and signed a peace accord in which he agreed to dismantle his troops and become deputy chairman of a restructured military council. But the rebel leader, who now claims he was forced to sign the peace treaty under "great external pressure" from Presidents Daniel arap Moi of Kenya and Ali Hassan Mwinyi of Tanzania, never put into effect the terms of the agreement. Instead, he returned to his stronghold in the south of Uganda and, a month later, mounted his successful assault on Kampala.

Gaining power in Uganda is one thing, but maintaining it is quite another. Last week Museveni appealed to all government troops to lay down their arms. Many former army soldiers retreated to the northern part of the country, assaulting and looting along the way. General Okello reportedly sought refuge in Sudan, where he is said to be planning a counterattack. From his own haven in Saudi Arabia, Idi Amin charged the new government with slaughtering civilians and claimed that he had urged his followers inside Uganda to resist Museveni. The old guard may be gone, but it will probably be a while before its influence passes from the scene in Uganda.

With reporting by James Wilde/Kampala