Uganda Revolts

After captivating a battalion of believers who poured from Uganda's countryside in a suicidal crusade against the government, the magic of voodoo priestess Alice Lakwena appears spent. Some said the 27-year-old rebel leader was a medium of God, with a mission to liberate Uganda. Others called her demented. Ultimately, her Holy Spirit Movement became the most troublesome of the several insurgencies fighting the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Her name is Innocent, but her doleful brown eyes already bespeak a life of misery. Her parents were captured and killed three years ago. She was enslaved in this nation's remote northern regions, where she was beaten with sticks and a bicycle chain until the flesh fell from her body. She was raped by several soldiers and forced into a life as a commander's concubine.

Rebel guerrillas, some loyal to former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, killed at least six government soldiers, looted homes, stole cattle, and seized two posts in attacks along the Zaire border last week, witnesses said Sunday. Army reinforcements moved into the area in northwest Uganda and the rebels withdrew into neighboring Zaire and Sudan.

Ugandan Christian rebels beat 24 people to death with hoes during a raid on a northern village, the state-owned New Vision newspaper reported. The paper said the commander of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, and his group carried out the killings during a raid on an army unit in the northern village of Kilak in an apparent attempt to recapture a strategic base they lost to troops last month. The rebels say they want to establish rule based on the Bible's Ten Commandments.

Ugandan troops killed 5,000 rebels and captured 4,500 guns during the last 12 months, President Yoweri Museveni told military attaches visiting the war zone in north and northeastern Uganda. State-run Radio Uganda said the president gave the figures while showing diplomats the scene of the latest battle between rebels and government forces. The present phase of Uganda's long civil turmoil began on Aug.

Some changes noted upon returning to sub-Saharan Africa after an absence of more than 14 years: The last time I was in Kampala, Idi Amin had just been overthrown and the lobby of the Apollo Hotel was full of drunken Tanzanian soldiers who delighted in shooting out ceiling lights. The hotel had no food or electricity, and I drew my drinking water from a fire hose. Today the newly renovated hotel is a Sheraton and a popular gathering spot in a city on the mend.

Ugandan Christian rebels beat 24 people to death with hoes during a raid on a northern village, the state-owned New Vision newspaper reported. The paper said the commander of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, and his group carried out the killings during a raid on an army unit in the northern village of Kilak in an apparent attempt to recapture a strategic base they lost to troops last month. The rebels say they want to establish rule based on the Bible's Ten Commandments.

Rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army slaughtered 82 civilians abducted on a rampage through northern Uganda, a Ugandan military officer said Saturday. Seven of the dead were soldiers' wives abducted from the northern town of Gulu by LRA fighters. The LRA wants Uganda to be ruled strictly by the tenets of the Bible's Ten Commandments. Thursday's was the largest attack by the rebels since a battle with troops in 1988.

They can be intensely small, these skirmishes for Africa's future. Like the duel between the cornerstone and the land mine in the red-dirt frontier of northern Uganda. At an essential moment of their history, Ugandans are building the new pride of Africa--and simultaneously threatening to blow it up. Uganda was a human slaughterhouse during the reign of Idi Amin, the bloodthirsty general who was the nation's self-proclaimed "President for Life" from 1971 to 1979.

Her name is Innocent, but her doleful brown eyes already bespeak a life of misery. Her parents were captured and killed three years ago. She was enslaved in this nation's remote northern regions, where she was beaten with sticks and a bicycle chain until the flesh fell from her body. She was raped by several soldiers and forced into a life as a commander's concubine.

Brig. Gen. Chefe Ali, army commander of the north, held his gleaming cavalry sword high as he mounted his steed--in this case, the back of a bicycle pedaled by an aide--and charged off into the bush here last week to inspect the depredations of Africa's latest nightmare. For two hours, terrified villagers told Ali of atrocities and attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army, a fanatic Christian fundamentalist cult led by a self-proclaimed prophet with a murderous manner.

They can be intensely small, these skirmishes for Africa's future. Like the duel between the cornerstone and the land mine in the red-dirt frontier of northern Uganda. At an essential moment of their history, Ugandans are building the new pride of Africa--and simultaneously threatening to blow it up. Uganda was a human slaughterhouse during the reign of Idi Amin, the bloodthirsty general who was the nation's self-proclaimed "President for Life" from 1971 to 1979.

Rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army slaughtered 82 civilians abducted on a rampage through northern Uganda, a Ugandan military officer said Saturday. Seven of the dead were soldiers' wives abducted from the northern town of Gulu by LRA fighters. The LRA wants Uganda to be ruled strictly by the tenets of the Bible's Ten Commandments. Thursday's was the largest attack by the rebels since a battle with troops in 1988.

Some changes noted upon returning to sub-Saharan Africa after an absence of more than 14 years: The last time I was in Kampala, Idi Amin had just been overthrown and the lobby of the Apollo Hotel was full of drunken Tanzanian soldiers who delighted in shooting out ceiling lights. The hotel had no food or electricity, and I drew my drinking water from a fire hose. Today the newly renovated hotel is a Sheraton and a popular gathering spot in a city on the mend.

Rebel guerrillas, some loyal to former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, killed at least six government soldiers, looted homes, stole cattle, and seized two posts in attacks along the Zaire border last week, witnesses said Sunday. Army reinforcements moved into the area in northwest Uganda and the rebels withdrew into neighboring Zaire and Sudan.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a peace agreement with a major northern rebel group to absorb the guerrillas into his National Resistance Army, official Uganda Radio said. The signing ceremony involving Museveni and Uganda People's Democratic Army (UPDA) leader Lt. Col. John Okello took place Friday in the northern town of Gulu,544499813weeks of negotiations between the two sides and a split within the rebel group. Former commander Brig.

Ugandan troops "smashed" the Holy Spirit rebel movement of cult priestess Alice Lakwena, who was wounded and fled on a bicycle pushed by seven of her supporters, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Saturday. "The group has been smashed and completely destroyed," he said in a statement broadcast on Radio Uganda, adding that government troops killed more than 2,000 rebels during the past month.

After captivating a battalion of believers who poured from Uganda's countryside in a suicidal crusade against the government, the magic of voodoo priestess Alice Lakwena appears spent. Some said the 27-year-old rebel leader was a medium of God, with a mission to liberate Uganda. Others called her demented. Ultimately, her Holy Spirit Movement became the most troublesome of the several insurgencies fighting the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Ugandan troops "smashed" the Holy Spirit rebel movement of cult priestess Alice Lakwena, who was wounded and fled on a bicycle pushed by seven of her supporters, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Saturday. "The group has been smashed and completely destroyed," he said in a statement broadcast on Radio Uganda, adding that government troops killed more than 2,000 rebels during the past month.