{UAH} THE VIOLENCVE OF ACHOLI FROM THE EYES OF NEW YORK TIMES

VIOLENCE STILL MARKS LIFE IN KAMPALA

By ALAN COWELL, Special to the New York Times

Published: July 11, 1981

·        KAMPALA, Uganda, July 10— There is a place in Kampala's Akii-Bua Road where, shaded by leafy trees, the bullets of past battles have become embedded in the paving, so deep it seems that they could never be removed. If critics of President Milton Obote are to be believed, the violence that begat the bullets, and other woes, are just as deep.

Uganda's 12 million people have seen little but turmoil since Idi Amin's rule ended in April 1979, when a predominantly Tanzanian force accompanied by Ugandan exiles forced the one-time dictator and his army to flee. His flight is known now as ''liberation.'' What joy there was then has now evaporated.

Two civilian governments and a military regime succeeded one another before last December's elections, which returned Mr. Obote to the presidency. Mr. Obote, Uganda's first leader after independence from Britain, was deposed by Mr. Amin in 1971. Mr. Obote's triumphant return to power, unique in Africa, was made hollow by charges from opposition figures that the vote was rigged.

Mr. Obote is a northerner, from the Lango area. The capital of Kampala, and the presidential mansion nearby, are both situated in the wide, southern swath of land where Uganda's 3.5 million Baganda people, the nation's largest single tribe, have traditionally held sway. It is an unhappy juxtaposition, for the Baganda resent the Lango. Gunmen Control Streets

Barely a night goes by here without the abrupt crackle of gunfire echoing between hotels and offices and shuttered, empty stores that cling to the seven hills on which Kampala is built. By night, a resident said, the men with guns control the streets.

Mr. Obote's critics are vocal in their views, once they are sure that they will not be quoted by name. ''The soldiers, Obote's soldiers, are just killing and robbing,'' said a dispossessed businessman from the Ankole people in western Uganda.

A priest said, ''It is worse now than in Amin's days.'' Government spokesmen blame the violence on ''bad elements'' from Mr. Amin's era and from the first two governments after liberation that they say are being ''weeded out.'' The main opposition group, the Democratic Party, disagrees.

The group's leader, Paul Ssemogerere, said in an interview that Mr. Obote's Government had embarked on a ''systematic violation of human rights,'' including arbitrary arrest, detention without trial and torture of opponents. A Danger of 'Despair'

''I think that because of the failure on the part of the Government to respond positively to proposals promoting peaceful resolution of conflict, and avoiding violation of human rights by the state, there is a danger that more and more people will despair and be tempted to abandon the peaceful approach,'' Mr. Ssemogerere said. ''That is why we have so many people in exile and some agitating for violent means of changing the Government.''

''Frustration leads some people to despair,'' he said, adding that he was not involved with any of the myriad guerrilla groups currently opposing Mr. Obote. Neither the President, nor his powerful deputy, Paulo Muwanga, were available for interviews about Mr. Ssemogerere's accusations.

In the Nile Mansions Hotel, a luxury building in downtown Kampala where Government leaders have suites of rooms, some of his followers had been tortured, Mr. Ssemogerere said. Around 300 Democratic Party adherents were unlawfully in detention, he said.

''It is less explainable than in the Amin days,'' said Mr. Ssemogerere, a dapper, forlorn figure sitting in a bare office in front of a broken, blue Venetian blind.

Government spokesmen argue that some of those Democratic Party officials in detention were arrested because they had links with guerrillas seeking Mr. Obote's overthrow by force of arms, an accusation denied by Mr. Ssemogerere. Charges Directed at Army

Many charges are leveled at the army of 8,000 to 10,000 men, most of them northerners who were brutalized by Mr. Amin and are seeking tribal vengeance.

Last month, soldiers went on a rampage at Ombachi Mission in West Nile Province in the northwest, where insurgents, including some former members of Mr. Amin's army, are operating against them. Over 50 people were killed, according to witnesses who reject statements by some Government officials that the deaths were the result of ''cross fire.'' Much of West Nile Province is a ''no man's land,'' a well-informed traveler from the area said.

According to Kampala residents and Western diplomats here, soldiers raid areas in ostensible searches for insurgents, but plunder instead. At roadblocks, which seem ubiquitous in Uganda, goods are stolen, these informants said.

Neither are the army's loyalties clear - some are tribal, others personal -and new friction has been created, a Western diplomat said, by a tendency to promote Mr. Obote's Lango followers ahead of the Acholis, a second northern tribe that has traditionally been allied with Mr. Obote's people. The Lango and Acholi form the bulk of the army.

Mr. Ssemogerere and other Ugandans accused the army of involvement in widespread corruption, a major contributory factor in Uganda's profound economic crisis, which has forced many people to seek second jobs, or some other source of legal or illegal income, to augment pay that does not cover family food costs.

''Policemen, military officers, privates are all in the same boat,'' he said. ''A private gets 800 shillings a month. That is about enough for two bottles of beer.'' The amount is the equivalent of about $10.

Last month's partial withdrawal of Tanzanian troops has removed a buffer between Ugandans and the army, which Western diplomats who watch it closely describe as tribally based, underpaid, illdisciplined and, often, insufficiently trained. ''As an example,'' one of these diplomats said, ''no one at headquarters knows how big the army is. That is the kind of army it is.''

Illustrations: photo of Presidents Milton Obote and Daniel arap Moi

 

 

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"