By Badru D. Mulumba
Posted July 6, 2003-Monitor
| EU force relocates
US marines have taken over security at Entebbe�s Botanical Beach Hotel where President George W. Bush is expected to meet President Yoweri Museveni, this week. Yesterday morning, an unflinching Marine dressed in a black blazer and red shirt sat on a table at the entrance to the hotel lobby. �Show your ID to the marine before going upstairs,� reads a notice. Sunday Monitor learnt the US advance team, estimated at 300, arrived on Wednesday night. They reportedly arrived from Entebbe International Airport aboard three buses, said to have been of the Scandinavian Express type. The group mainly comprises technical people. Sources said Bush would travel with about 100 journalists. According to sources, the US team displaced some of the European Union peace keeping troops at the hotel. The spokesman of the French-led EU team, Capt. Fredric Solano confirmed that part of their team had to be moved. �The problem was that when we rented the rooms, many weeks before [that], there were Americans who had already reserved,� he said. Unofficial hotel sources said that the EU peacekeeping mission, which had to be moved, numbered about 100. �But it is not so important. We have soldiers in the [Botanical] gardens. We have soldiers in other hotels. What happened was that these people [US team] had booked those rooms many, many weeks ago. So, we had to move out.� At least six military jeeps for the peacekeeping mission were yesterday parked at the hotel. A security source said a small group is staying in the hotel. The Americans have reportedly fixed their own telephone system. Sunday Monitor saw fresh telephone poles erected along the 400 metres stretch of road that connects Botanical Beach to the main road. A long black van, longer than the Chevrolet that the US embassy normally uses, was parked at the entrance to the hotel. It was thought to be a communications van. It had tinted glasses, two radio-call sets on the dashboard, and a short, stout protruding aerial pointing on the outside of the car. Cleaning was also underway at The Aids Support Organisation (TASO), just next to Botanical Beach Hotel. President Bush is expected to visit TASO. Dr Michael Bernard Etukoit, the manager TASO Entebbe was personally supervising the cleaning. Asked if they had been informed of the visit to TASO, he said: �Well, we prefer to wait and see.� The road leading to the airport was being given a brush of fresh black and white paint. The vice-chairperson of Entebbe Division A - where both Entebbe Airport and the hotel lie - said that that the municipality, the ministry of Works, and the Civil Aviation Authority are coordinating the effort. The Police have reportedly assigned two patrol cars and also stepped up foot patrols. |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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