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Hutu Rebels Massacre Eight Tourists In Uganda
March 3, 1999
By Erich Opolot And Dan Elwana In Kampala
Nairobi - Eight foreign tourists were killed and six others were rescued
yesterday after Hutu rebels kidnapped them in a game park in Uganda.
Four of the tourists killed were British, two were Americans and two were New
Zealanders. At least four of them were women. They had gone to Bwindi Forest
in south-western Uganda to see the rare mountain gorillas made famous in the
film "Gorillas in the Mist".
A game warden and three rangers were shot dead on Sunday and a Ugandan pilot
kidnapped when they fought to stop the rebels seizing 31 tourists from Buhoma,
headquarters of Bwindi National Park, on Monday. They were abducted in the
early morning attack on two tented camps but the rebels later let 17 women and
children go.
They were described as being safe "but in a terrible state after their
ordeal".
The men who were kidnapped were beaten, then forced to march off into the
forest without their shoes, one survivor said.
It was not clear whether the eight tourists who died yesterday were killed by
their kidnappers or fell during a gun battle following a bungled rescue
attempt.
The Ugandans said their army was pursuing the rebels - believed to number
between 130 and 150 - and had shot dead four of them.
American Linda Adams, who escaped from the Hutu militiamen on Monday after
feigning an asthma attack, said at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in
Nairobi that Americans and Britons had been marked out by the rebels.
"They were treating us as well as could be expected. We were sitting down
under guns not necessarily pointing at us, but they all had guns," she said.
The British Foreign Office in London said Ugandan Government soldiers had
apparently exchanged fire with the rebels.
"What we know is that there appears to have been an exchange of fire," a
spokesman said.
Ugandan police spokesman Eric Naigambi denied that the Ugandan army botched a
rescue attempt.
"I don't think so. They were killed by the rebels," he told Reuters news
agency.
In Kampala, Britain's High Commissioner Michael Cook said all 31 tourists
kidnapped in the park on Monday were now accounted for.
He said 17 were released or escaped on Monday, six were rescued on Tuesday and
the bodies of the remaining eight had been recovered.
The six rescued tourists were two Britons, an American, a Swiss, a New
Zealander and a Canadian, Uganda's vice-president Ms Specioza Kazibwe told
Parliament in Kampala.
Ms Kazibwe said the rebels - all men aged 18 to 30 - also burnt five vehicles
and two motorcycles and the camp at Buhoma. They stole four guns, three base
radios and four walkie-talkies.
A shocked diplomatic community flew an international team that included High
Commissioner Cook to the area in a US Government plane.
The team is caring for those who have been released and the remains of those
who were killed.
The bodies of those killed were flown to Kambuga hospital in the remote
Rukungiri District, awaiting removal to Kampala.
Local teams from the Uganda Wildlife Authority, police and the army were flown
to the border town of Kisoro to join the international team.
The Ugandan Government said it "strongly condemns this barbaric act of the
terrorist Interahamwe who have no respect for human life".
Ms Kazibwe said France's deputy ambassador to Uganda, Ms Anne Peltier, who had
been among the captives, had been freed with a message for authorities that
the action was being taken because of US and British government support for
Rwanda's Tutsi population.
The Hutu rebels, who have bases in the DRC, are remnants of the Interahamwe
militia responsible for Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people, mainly
Tutsis, were killed.
After the current Rwandan Government took power to end the genocide, many of
the Interahamwe militiamen fled into exile in the DRC.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in Milan, Italy, for a conference of
Socialist leaders, yesterday called the affair "a tragic incident" and said
his government was frantically trying to determine what happened.
Last August, six tourists who crossed from Uganda into the DRC to track the
gorillas were attacked and kidnapped by Rwandese Hutu rebels.
Three are still missing but Ugandan authorities said last month they believed
they were still alive.
Bwindi is a popular park because it is home to about 300 of the remaining 600
mountain gorillas. It was established in 1991 and is about 330 square
kilometres. It lies near the border of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo.
[[[[[ The Ugandan army, concerned about possible kidnappings, has been trying
to deter tourists from going to the area to see the gorillas. Thousands of
tourists visit the mountain gorillas every year, paying millions of shillings
for the privilege.
The Bwindi National Park and the Rwenzori mountains are considered vital to
attempts by Kampala to boost its image as an upmarket tourist destination.
Britain's Foreign Office has already advised all British tourists not to visit
the area and to take extreme care when travelling to the Gulu, Kitgum and West
Nile districts in Uganda.
Ms Sue Ockwell, a spokeswoman for Acacia Expeditions, which organised the tour
for its mainly backpacking clients, who had paid Ksh115,500 ( pounds 1,155)
for the 28-day safari, complained that Foreign Office travel advice was often
worded in such a way that it needed to be deciphered.
"If they meant don't go, they should say 'Don't go," she said. Abercrombie and
Kent, the tour operator who own the other luxury safari camp which was
attacked, say they have now closed it and will not re-open it until it given
Foreign Office advice to do so. ]]]]]]
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Copyright � 1999 The Nation. Distributed via Africa News
