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PM/79/24 PRIME MINISTER CABINET OFFICE A .\°.Vh. 27FEB 1979 FILING INSTRUCTIONS ' FILE No. JM.3./I ' 1. We agreed in DOP on 22 January that I should seek the Committee's agreement when I judged the time was appropriate to suspend the Uganda Airlines flights to Stansted. 2. President Amin is now in more serious trouble than at any time since he seized power. The Tanzanians seem determined to keep up military pressure in the hope that Amin will crack. African governments] who are aware that the Tanzanians are conducting a creeping military incursion into Uganda, have not criticised the Tanzanians. I judge this is the best opportunity since the Uganda invasion of Tanzania last November to suspend the outward Stansted flights .and. I-*ecommend..,.. that this now be done. 3. I have taken into account two possibilities. First, that we might be accused by our African friends of colluding with the Tanzanians. The very cautious line towards Tanzania taken by the Organisation of African Unity suggests that such a charge would not be levelled at us. Secondly, there could be some risk of retaliation against the small number of British citizens (about 300) still in Uganda. ^President Amin did not retaliate against the small American community when the XJnited States imposed a full trade embargo last October. 4. I therefore propose that the Secretary of State for Trade should now act under the Air Navigation Order, 1976. 5.. I am copying this minute to our colleagues in DOP, and to Sir John Hunt. (DAVID OWEN) Foreign and Commonwealth Office 27 February 1979 SECRET