{UAH} Nyerere defies Gaddafi's 24-hour threat, captures Entebbe, Kampala - National - thecitizen.co.tz

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Nyerere defies Gaddafi's 24-hour threat, captures Entebbe, Kampala - National

 Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi: He threatened to back the Ugandan dictator in war.      

In Summary

In a note delivered to Nyerere by the Libyan ambassador to Tanzania, Gaddafi demanded that Tanzanian troops be out of Uganda within 24 hours. If this was not done, Gaddafi said, Libya would enter the war on the side of Uganda.

As the war continued with Tanzania troops heavily bombing Amin's forces, Julius Kambarage Nyerere received an explicit threat from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, which shocked him.

The 24-hour threat was delivered in Dar es Salaam by Libya's ambassador to Tanzania.

In a note delivered to Nyerere by the Libyan ambassador to Tanzania, Gaddafi demanded that Tanzanian troops be out of Uganda within 24 hours. If this was not done, Gaddafi said, Libya would enter the war on the side of Uganda.

The authors say Nyerere was somewhat taken aback, since he knew that Libya had already entered the war at Lukaya. Nyerere responded by going public with Gaddafi's threat.

In a nationwide radio broadcast Nyerere disclosed that Gaddafi had warned that the war might spread into Tanzania. "The war is about to take on new dimensions," Nyerere said, but assured Tanzanians that neither Libyan threats nor actions could change Tanzania's view of Idi Amin.

Four days later a Libyan TU-22 supersonic bomber took off from Nakasongola air base in Uganda on a mission to bomb the Tanzanian town of Mwanza.

Flying only a few hundred feet above the waters of Lake Victoria, the plane avoided detection by the Tanzanian radar. The bomber made one low-level pass over Mwanza just at sunset.

But the TU-22 supersonic released its load, five antipersonnel rockets filled with one –inch steel nails, too early which landed on the Saa Nane Island Game Sanctuary in the lake.

The only casualties were one worker slightly injured and six gazelle and several birds killed.

Amin's target was to hit Bugando Medical Centre as well as fuel storage tankers which were located along Kenyatta Road at Igogo suburbs, near Mwanza South port—hoping that the explosion of the oil tankers would have escalated further damages to the rock city.

The authors say Tanzania's reply came two days later when Russian made jet fighters, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 known in its acronym as Mig, took off from Mwanza and bombed Kampala, Jinja and Tororo. In Kampala the Tanzanian bombs set an oil-storage depot ablaze.

In Jinja a lucky hit by a Tanzanian pilot levelled the Libya-Uganda Development Bank. Amin happened to be in Jinja at the time, and after the attack which lasted no more than 10 seconds, he ran into the street screaming incoherently.

The direct hit on the Libyan bank, which was as much a surprise to the Tanzanian Mig pilot as everyone else, led many Ugandans to believe that Tanzania possessed special bombs that sought out specific targets on command.

All the Tanzanians Migs returned safely, and a few days later they made another raid into Uganda, this time peppering the runway at Entebbe Airport with machine-gun fire and setting a section of the terminal ablaze with a rocket.

But the Migs failed in their primary objective, which was to destroy the runway so that Libyan planes could no longer land.

Avirgan and Honey recount how news came that a conference held in Moshi had succeeded in establishing a Ugandan government-in-exile which relieved military commanders of the worry of what to do about Kampala after it was taken. From high ground at Mpigi the Tanzanians could see and even fire at Kampala to the north and Entebbe to the east, each about 30 kilometres away.

It was assumed that Amin would concentrate his forces at Kampala and the original Tanzanian plan called for a drive straight to the capital, bypassing the Entebbe Peninsula. But from Mpigi the Tanzanians could see that Entebbe was a hive of enemy military activity. Libyan planes were flying in and out and large numbers of Libyan and Ugandan troops crowded the town.

If Kampala was taken without Entebbe first being secured, say the journalists, the Tanzanians would be faced with a large enemy force at their back. David Msuguri decided to go for Entebbe first and gave the job to Brigadier Mwita Marwa's 208 Brigade.

On the night of April 6 the shelling became serious, with several hundred rounds sent crashing down on Entebbe. The next morning the 208th Brigade moved in, setting up ambushes along the way. A Land Rover with eight Libyans inside was hit and burned on the road to Mpigi.

A Libyan C-10 transport plane landed at Entebbe Airport at 10am in a valiant attempt to rescue Libyan soldiers trapped on the Entebbe Peninsula. Thirty Libyans scrambled aboard before the plane turned around and began taking off.

"But an advance party of Tanzanians was already at the edge of the runway, and as the big plane passed, a rocket-propelled grenade tore through its side, setting the plane ablaze and incinerating the soldiers inside," say the authors, adding that as the attack progressed, hundreds of Libyans became confused and disoriented.

In all over 300 Libyans were killed at Entebbe and more than 40 taken prisoner. Scores of wounded Libyans were taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala and soon after evacuated to Libya from Nakasongola air base. Gaddafi's Ugandan adventure was an unmitigated disaster.

Most of the sophisticated weapons he sent to Uganda including three brand new BM-21 "Stalin organ" rocket launchers, quickly fell into Tanzanian hands.

On the morning of April 8, the Tanzanians began to explore what they had captured. At a church near the shore of Lake Victoria they found 200 soldiers from Amin's air force huddled together, dressed in civilian clothes, waiting to surrender.

Some ambitious Tanzanian soldiers made straight for the airport looking for the duty free shop. But Amin's retreating soldiers had beat them to it and the airport was completely looted.

There were, however, among the jumble of shot-up aircraft, nine functional Mig-21s. Tanzania claimed these as prizes of war and they were later flown to Mwanza, where one crashed on landing, killing the pilot.

While civilians stripped the houses of Amin's soldiers and civil servants who had fled, Tanzanian soldiers had a go at Entebbe State House.

In Amin's official residence they found storerooms stacked to the ceiling with transistor radios, watches, electric kettles, linen sheets and televisions, say the authors, adding that these were goods brought from Stansted on Amin's infamous "Whisky Shuttles." Intended as perks for Amin's soldiers, they now were going instead to the Tanzanian soldiers.

In the upstairs rooms at State House an insight into the character of Idi Amin was gained. Lettering the floor of Amin's bedroom were pornographic magazines, vast quantities of medicines, and State Research Bureau files on alleged subversives.

In every room of the house including the children's bedrooms there were caches of weapons including submachine guns, pistols and hand grenades.

In a closet was an assassin's gun—a 30-30 rifle with telescopic sights and silencer, perhaps supplied by Frank Terpil. Plastic explosives were found in a bedroom and the British admiral's hat which Amin liked to wear.

The final briefing before the operation to take Kampala got under way. It took place in the grand dining room of Entebbe State House.

Hours later Major General Msuguri arrived for the briefing and all the battalion commanders of the 208th Brigade were in attendance. Brigadier Marwa, with his ever-present pipe in his mouth, gave the briefing, which lasted a little more than an hour.

The operation was to get underway the next morning and was to take three days to complete. The goal was Kampala. As the officers settled down to a lunch of beef curry, the atmosphere was that of a victory banquet.

There was no thought that things could go wrong now. The Libyans had been put to fight, Amin's army was broken and Kampala was only 35 kilometres away and within grasp of the liberation forces.

Lieutenant Colonel Ben Msuya's 19th Battalion was to take the centre of Kampala.

Its line of approach was to be directly down the main Entebbe-Kampala road. Other units were to advance deep into the bush on either side of the road.

Yet, miraculously, Msuya had not had a single soldier killed since the start of the war. It was a record Msuya wanted to preserve, at least for the next three days. He wanted to capture Kampala without losing a single man.

Part of the strategy for capturing Kampala was directed by President Nyerere, who ordered that the city not be completely surrounded. He wanted the road out of Kampala to the east, the road to Jinja left open to provide an avenue of escape for the Libyans and diplomats in the city.

The plan for taking Kampala called for attacks from the south (the 208th Brigade along the Entebbe road) and the west (the 207th Brigade and a battalion of Ugandan Liberation Forces along the road to Masaka).

The 201st Brigade was to be in position on the north side of the city in a "blocking action" aimed at preventing any of Amin's troops from escaping to the north.

The authors say Nyerere's decision to give the Libyans an escape route along the Jinja road was based on political rather than military considerations.

"Always several steps ahead of everyone else in his thinking, the Tanzanian president knew that neither the war nor the diplomatic row created by the war would end with the taking of Kampala," say Avirgan and Honey.

As Msuya drove back to his unit following the Entebbe meeting, unknown to the Tanzanians, Amin was just up the road, in Kampala, drawing up plans for the defence of the capital.

Msuya had a half-dozen 82-mm mortars, one T-59 medium tank, two T-62 light tanks and a 75-mm antitank recoilless rifle on the hill, but there was nothing at his disposal that could knock out the enemy tank at that distance.

As night settled in, the sounds of war filled the air. Defensive ambushes set by the Tanzanians were intercepting Amin's reconnaissance patrols.

Throughout the night the staccato of small-arms fire mingled with the thuds of mortars and the rapid thump-thump as RPGs were fired and found their mark.

As Msuya began to lead his men toward the city, the weather seemed to respond to the occasion. The rain stopped the skies brightened, though they never cleared fully. For the first time that day, people began appearing at roadsides at first in clusters of five or ten and then in groups of hundreds and finally, as Kampala came nearer, in tens of thousands.

The civilians were waving branches, beating drums and cheering wildly, running alongside and among the advancing Tanzanian troops.

The advance on Kampala began to look more and more like a victory parade rather than a military operation and Colonel Msuya was worried though rather helpless, say the authors, adding that celebrating civilians were all over the road, shaking hands, hugging and kissing the marching Tanzanian soldiers.

The journalists say at one point hundreds of people climbed aboard the three tanks at the front of the column, completely obscuring them from Msuya's view. The tanks were now decorated with red, orange, purple and yellow branches of bougainvillea, and the premature victory parade continued. As the top of one hill was crested, Kampala came fully into view.

The sun was shining on the tall buildings of the city, providing a magnificent panorama for the excited Tanzanians troops. With the goal in sight, the pace of the column quickened slightly as soldiers' shouts of "Shika Kampala" rose above the cheering of the civilian crowds.

These celebrations ended abruptly as the column approached the Makindye roundabout, about two kilometres from the centre of town. To the right was the road to the notorious Makindye Prison, one of Amin's favourite facilities for torture and killing. But Msuya's orders were to bypass the prison and proceed straight to the centre of Kampala.

Msuya was worried, not only about the civilians interfering with the battle-readiness of his battalion, but also about what would happen in Kampala itself. The Tanzanian army had never had a day of training in urban fighting.

In Kampala the soldiers would be operating on unfamiliar streets flanked by tall buildings, ideal locations for snipers. As Kampala drew nearer, Msuya became more and more uneasy, but his moments of contemplation were short-lived as thousands of civilians rushed to shake the hands of the lead Tanzanian troops.

Then the attacks from both sides began. The enemy attack, if it can seriously be called that, came from the road on the left. Suddenly the crackle of small-arms fire rose above the cheering of the crowds.

The firing grew more and more intense as word of what was happening was passed down the road.

Cheers and shouts of "Shika Kampala" filled the air, and the march toward the capital began again.

Finally, at 5pm, the Clock Tower, marking the point where the Entebbe road enters downtown Kampala, was reached. This was the place where in September 1977 Amin had publicly executed by firing squad 12 prominent Langi and Acholi men whom he had accused of plotting, along with Archbishop Luwum, to overthrow the government.

Minutes later the battalion came upon the radio station quite by chance. Msuya and several of his soldiers went right up to the open doors of the radio station. The colonel had been given specific orders not to make any broadcasts or public announcements after entering Kampala, but he was sorely tempted to disobey these orders.

"This is almost worth getting court-marshalled for," Msuya said to one of his officers. He decided against attempting a broadcast, but did go into the building to determine whether or not the equipment was operational.

Having captured Kampala, Msuya called his officers together for a toast to the taking of the Ugandan capital.

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Nyerere defies Gaddafi's 24-hour threat, captures Entebbe, Kampala - National - thecitizen.co.tz

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