Coup leaders dismiss ugandan parliament : constitution suspended, elections promised but no date set; kampala looting continues

NAIROBI, Kenya — Military officers who seized power in Uganda, deposing President Milton Obote, said Sunday that they have dismissed Parliament and suspended the constitution but will hold

free elections at an unspecified date in the future. Brig. Basilio Olara Okello, head of the rebellious army faction that carried out the coup, made a brief radio address to the Ugandan

people from Kampala, the capital. “I have arrived here in Kampala,” he said. “Stay at home. We took the step (the coup) because of unity. I pray to God to bless all the citizens of Uganda.”

The army officer who introduced Okello referred to him only as the “leader.” Heavy looting continued in Kampala during the morning Sunday, but residents of the city, reached by telephone,

said that violence had calmed somewhat by Sunday afternoon. They added that it still was not clear whether the coup leaders, who have proclaimed themselves the new rulers of the nation, are

in full control. Kampala radio, which was seized by Okello’s troops Saturday morning, stopped playing disco and popular music Sunday and broadcast martial music instead--among the selections

“Anchors Aweigh” and the “March of the Toy Soldiers.” Programming was interrupted from time to time with appeals that the people remain calm and stay indoors. Not long after Okello spoke,

an army spokesman identified only as Col. Maruru went on the air to announce the suspension of the constitution and the closing of Parliament. He also said that Uganda’s borders and the

international airport at Entebbe will remain closed until further notice and that all foreign-currency transactions are prohibited. Maruru assured the Ugandans that there will be “a

government of their own choice in free and fair elections.” No date was mentioned. The spokesman said no “innocent civilians or civil servants or ministers” of Obote’s government will be

prosecuted, but he declared that the military has taken over to end “the despotic rule of Obote,” whom he accused of committing “heinous murders and assassinations” during his recent 4 1/2

years as president, his second stretch as the East African nation’s leader. Obote’s whereabouts remain a mystery. Most reports, all of them unconfirmed, said the 60-year-old veteran

political figure had fled to Kenya. His first term as president came to an end in 1971, when he was toppled by his then-army chief of staff, Gen. Idi Amin. Newspapers here in Nairobi said

that Obote spent Saturday night in the western Kenyan town of Kakamega, after fleeing Friday night or Saturday morning in a caravan of security agents. One Western diplomat, however, said he

has been assured by a ranking Kenyan official that Obote is not in Kenya but is probably in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam. Looting’s Legacy On Sunday morning, witnesses in Kampala

said, the city’s downtown section looked as if it had been hit by a cyclone. Shop windows were shot out. Empty merchandise crates, taken from stores and pried open in the streets, littered

the pavement. The number of casualties could not be confirmed, but a local reporter for United Press International counted four bullet-riddled bodies lying face down in the street. Soldiers

were seen sitting on the curbs, their rifles between their knees, drinking beer and breaking the bottles in the street. It was assumed that the soldiers were loyal to Brig. Okello, but lines

of authority remained unclear. Some Kampala residents said that soldiers broke into their suburban homes and “stole whatever they could carry.” The soldiers were reported to have taken many

cars. The nation’s second city, Jinja, in the east, was reported to be calm Sunday and to have suffered little or no looting. Steadman Howard, director of the U.S. Information Service in

Kampala, spent the night in his office after being caught there Saturday morning when the coup began to develop. “We’ve been hunkered down all day,” Howard told a reporter who telephoned his

office. “We are not moving.” In Washington, State Department spokesman Joe Reap announced: “We’ve made preliminary contact with the military authorities in control of Kampala to seek

protection for our personnel. All official (U.S. government) Americans are accounted for. We are urging private Americans in Uganda to remain in their residences and to keep in constant

touch with the embassy. We are continuing to monitor events.” An estimated 160 American citizens without government connections live in Uganda. The Associated Press quoted Britain’s top

diplomat in Uganda, acting High Commissioner Peter Penfold, as telling the British Broadcasting Corp. that some of the 1,100 Britons in Uganda have been assaulted. None, he said, were

seriously wounded. Uganda achieved independence from Britain in 1962. The embassy also had reports that some British homes had been looted, Penfold said. At one point during the phone

interview, Penfold said he was ducking under his desk because of nearby gunfire. Uganda’s Roman Catholic cardinal, Emmanuel Nsubuga, said shooting had quieted down by late Sunday afternoon.

“It has not been as bad as I thought it was going to be,” he said. “There is no jubilation in the streets, as there was when Idi Amin seized power,” the prelate said. “I think Ugandans have

learned their lesson.” From Libya, the radical regime of Col. Moammar Kadafi announced recognition of the new Uganda authorities, citing the “new situation” in the country. Question of

Control Given the chaos described by most witnesses, however, it seemed unlikely that the leaders of the coup had gained full control. The reports that Ugandan soldiers, generally notorious

for lack of discipline, were running loose indicated that army commanders were busy sorting out their own lines of authority. Speculation continued Sunday about the fate of Paulo Muwanga,

Obote’s vice president and defense minister. First reports after the coup said he had fled across the border to Tanzania. Reports Sunday, also impossible to confirm, said he remained at home

in Kampala and was seeking to join his fortunes with the new military leaders. As defense minister, Muwanga has always had close ties with the military. A number of other Cabinet ministers

were reported to have been arrested, although the military made no immediate announcement on the subject. Factionalism within the army, rooted in Uganda’s tribal conflicts, apparently led to

the revolt against Obote. Worsening relations between the Acholi--Brig. Okello’s tribe--and Obote’s Langi had, over the last few months, deteriorated to the point where the two tribes’

soldiers were engaging in gunfights in the capital. Army’s Cohesion Unravels Diplomats quoted by the Reuters news agency in London said the conflict between the two tribes--both from the

north and temporary allies under Amin’s persecution--resurged after the 1983 death in a helicopter crash of Maj. Gen. David Oyite-Ojok, the military chief of staff. A Langi and an

experienced combat veteran, he had achieved wide respect from Acholi officers and soldiers. The next-ranking Acholi officer was not appointed to succeed him, apparently because of his

advanced age, and the army’s leadership instead went to a Langi, Brig. Smith Opon Acak. This was apparently resented by younger Acholi officers. Brig. Okello, whose own military career goes

back to the time before Amin took power, has been described as “a young Turk” within the top-level factional rivalries. An Acholi and a Catholic, he is described as about 6 feet tall, stocky

with gray hair, and comfortable speaking Swahili, a pan-African language. He has commanded troops in both the northern and southern regions of Uganda--another traditional tribal dividing

line--and distinguished himself in the 1979 ouster of Amin. “He’s a tremendous soldier, a really courageous fighter,” a Kenyan resident whose family long lived in Uganda told the Associated

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