TODAY IN HISTORY: Saleh reveals attack by Fedemo as NRA heads to Tororo January 28 1986

Salim Saleh

After taking over the strategic city of Jinja on January 27, the National Resistance Army turned their focus on the border town of Tororo.

There was however tension in areas they had previously captured, when NRA Troops  battled members of the Ugandan Freedom Movement on a road between Kampala and Jinja, according to NRA field commander Salim Saleh. 

The New York Times reported that the trouble was said to have begun when the Resistance Army, led by Museveni, insisted that troops of the Freedom Movement and a second rebel group be disarmed before joining the new Government.

THE NEW YORK TIMES REPORT

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan. 28— Ugandan rebels who overthrew the Government two days ago were reported today to have clashed with another rebel faction.

Troops of the National Resistance Army, which seized control on Sunday, battled members of the Ugandan Freedom Movement on a road between Kampala and Jinja, according to Salim Saleh, a field commander of the Resistance Army.

The trouble was said to have begun when the Resistance Army, led by Yoweri Museveni, insisted that troops of the Freedom Movement and a second rebel group be disarmed before joining the new Government.

The Freedom Movement troops, armed with weapons seized from retreating soldiers of the former Government, instead set up roadblocks, according to Western diplomats. A meeting is reportedly scheduled for Wednesday (January 29 1986) between the opposing factions.

Ugandan Freedom Movement is a guerrilla group which had once been aligned to the ousted military regime of Gen. Tito Okello.

The new Government controls Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe. The Freedom Movement had initially joined the former Government, but then switched sides to the Resistance Army in battles for control of Kampala.

Soldiers of the overthrown Government, meanwhile, were reported on a looting spree as they fled toward the north and east.

Museveni, flanked by Saleh addresses his troop in the bush

Mr. Museveni has said that 7,000 soldiers have surrendered and that others have joined his movement, but many others have apparently refused to lay down their arms.

The new Ugandan leader, (who is due to be sworn in on Wednesday January 29), has said that he plans to form a broadly based Government and will not seek retaliation against those who opposed him.

The Orlando Sentinel Report

NRA rebels consolidating their control of Uganda swept east across the country Tuesday (January 28 1986) in pursuit of fleeing government forces. Thousands of refugees fled into neighboring Kenya to escape the conflict.

Mechanized units of the NRA charged out of Jinja, Uganda's second-largest city 45 miles east of the capital of Kampala, and advanced to Tororo, close to the Kenyan border.

Diplomats said soldiers were putting up token resistance on the highway between Jinja and the border, but rebels officials said the road was expected to be cleared of soldiers by the end of the week.

Salim Saleh

The whereabouts of the deposed Ugandan leader, Gen. Tito Okello, and army commander Basilio Okello, who is not related to the former head of state, were still not known. Gen. Tito Okello was reportedly in Kenya on Saturday.

The National Resistance Army Tuesday controlled about two-thirds of the country. The NRA proclaimed itself the government of the East African nation on Sunday after capturing the capital in a bitter two-day siege.

The rebels captured Jinja on Monday. The city of 55,000 people houses key railroad intersections and the Owen Falls dam, the main source of power for Kampala and western Uganda.

About 7,000 soldiers -- about half the nation's army -- were captured in the fighting, rebel leaders said. An NRA official said some were permitted to join the rebels but said others would undergo ''political re-education''.

''They will be put to work,'' an NRA official said. ''There are roads to be dug and houses to be built. These troops have destroyed large areas of Uganda and will now rebuild them.''

Kenyan border officials said about 8,000 Ugandans have crossed the border to escape the retreating government forces, who reportedly have looted and committed rape while fleeing the advancing rebel units.

Kenyan officials said 5,000 civilians had crossed the border at the Kenyan town of Busia, near the Ugandan city of Tororo, in the past two days. Another 3,000 crossed at Malaba, an Ugandan city 200 miles northwest of Nairobi, Kenya.

U.N. officials said Kenyan border forces were preventing Ugandan soldiers from crossing into Kenya but were permitting civilians to enter the country, which tried to mediate a settlement to Uganda's long civil conflict.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Nairobi sent officials to the border to help process the flood of refugees, a U.N. official said in Nairobi.