TODAY IN HISTORY: Victorious NRA rebels go east, capture Jinja January 27, 1986

This is how Los Angeles Times newspaper reported the capture of Jinja on January 27, 1986.

The World : Uganda Rebels Seize City

Victorious Ugandan rebel forces consolidated their hold on the East African country, taking control of the eastern city of Jinja, the nation's second largest. Their leader, Yoweri Museveni, said he plans to form a nonaligned government committed to protecting human rights. He also said tribalism will not be a consideration under the new regime. However, an anonymous eyewitness in Kampala, the capital, said he saw five summary street executions by victorious guerrillas hours after the city fell last weekend. And diplomats warned that tribalism may get even worse, noting that the defeated soldiers "are running, fleeing and breaking down along tribal lines."

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How Orlando Sentinel reported events around January 27

"Rebels Take Over Control Of Uganda, Troops Drive Toward Kenya In Pursuit Of Army Remnants" | January 29, 1986|By United Press International

KAMPALA, UGANDA — National Resistance Army rebels consolidating their control of Uganda swept east across the country Tuesday 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 the village of Tororo, 10 miles from 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.

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.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: NRA takes over, Museveni calls for calm on govt-owned radio Jan 26, 1986

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