Mystery of mass murder and rape in the Kagera Salient

There are no reports of the Uganda Army going out of its way to attack civilians, even though many civilians openly expressed their support for the advancing Tanzanians.

It is strange, then, to read that this Uganda Army that took care to protect civilians exposed to the conflict would be the same army to unleash such havoc in Kagera.

Future historians and reporters might have to explain this, especially the fact that the pattern of mutilated civilian bodies and decapitated heads in Kagera in October 1978 was replicated in another war yet to come, the civil war in the Luweero Triangle of central Uganda.

In Sowing The Mustard Seed, the author Yoweri Museveni notes that Amin’s army, as part of its looting of the Kagera Salient, stole cattle from Mishenyi Ranch and “The cattle were driven all the way to Mbarara, 145 km away, and distributed to Amin’s clowns.”

It is strange too that most of the troops involved in the war, having come from Kampala-based army units, would, after stealing this cattle, have taken it to Mbarara rather than in the direction of Kampala, as would be expected, where the beef would fetch higher prices.

Future analysts would have to examine this strange development and ask why the stolen Tanzanian cattle ended up in Mbarara rather than Kampala or West Nile, since it is believed that most of Amin’s army came from West Nile.

This is important because, as explained by Museveni in his memoirs, his FRONASA forces were “operating from” the Kagera area at the outbreak of the war and it is well-known that most of the upper ranks of FRONASA were filled by men from Ankole.

Eventually, the Tanzanians entered Uganda and started their long journey that would lead to the fall of Amin’s government.
Some former Prisoners of War from the Uganda Army insist that it was not the Tanzanian army and armed Ugandan groups they fought exclusively during the 1979 war, but troops from Egypt, Angola, Algeria, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and other African countries.

Certainly Egypt was constantly denying reports that its troops were involved in the fighting. Egypt and some other Arab countries were alarmed at the support Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya was giving Amin and sought to counter-balance the Libyan influence.

Describing the final assault on Mbarara town, Museveni wrote: “On the morning of the 27th, we captured Gayaza Hill and went beyond it up to Masha… 18 km from Mbarara. Again there was little fighting because Amin’s soldiers ran away. Our medium artillery, based at a road camp at mile 14, shelled Mbarara the whole of that afternoon… At midnight on 27 February, we advanced on Mbarara and by morning we had entered the town. We captured it easily because there was no resistance… The TPDF battalions fanned across Mbarara, checking the town up to and including the barracks, which they found abandoned.” (Sowing The Mustard Seed, page 99)

In his 1980 book, Imperialism and revolution in Uganda, Dan Wadada Nabudere mentioned this fact of the invading Tanzanian force facing little resistance and the ease with which they gained territory:

“When Tanzanian troops advanced into Uganda they were met by jubilant crowds. As Amin threatened to punish villagers who were welcoming the advancing Tanzanian and Ugandan fighters, a unity of purpose was cemented between the fighters and the people,” Nabudere wrote. (Page 332)

The overall commander of the Tanzanian troops in Uganda, Major General Msuguri, had warned his soldiers not to destroy any infrastructure in Uganda as they would need it in the event of the fall of Amin’s government.

Here were the Tanzanians, facing little resistance from the Uganda Army in Mbarara and Masaka and being wholeheartedly welcomed by Ugandan civilians.

Then starting February 24, 1979, explosions were heard in Mbarara. Citizens discovered to their horror that many of the best buildings in the town had been destroyed by explosives. The destruction continued in Masaka town, with some of the best buildings levelled to the ground.