I think anyone going into a country as a tourist where there is terrorism
or threats of violence deserves what they get!
My 2 cents-
Bertina
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Wed, 3 Mar 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Brackets are mine [ ]
>
> 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. ]]]]]]
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Copyright � 1999 The Nation. Distributed via Africa News
>
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