◆ SpookStack

SECRET UGANDA/TANZANIA RELATIONS 1. During the past two weeks there has been a series of allegations emanating from Uganda that a Tanzanian invasion force had crossed the Ugandan border in south west Uganda near the towns of Mbarara and Masaka. In the last few days there have been unsubstantiated reports of mutiny among some Ugandan Army Units and an attempted coup. 2. On 12 October President Amin claimed a Tanzanian battalion had advanced 12 miles into Uganda using machine guns, anti-tank artillery, mortars and other sophisticated weapons. The alle- gation was dismissed as "absolute nonsense" by President Nyerere, and the British High Commission in Dar es Salaam reported that neither they nor the Americans there had seen or heard anything which might cast doubt on the Tanzanian denial. On 23 October Uganda radio announced that all Tanzanian soldiers had been withdrawn. 3. Allegations of a renewed Tanzanian invasion were made on 27 October and a small Ugandan border town was said to be in the hands of a Tanzanian force advancing towards Masaka and Kampala. Residents of Masaka contacted by journalists in the region over the weekend said the situation appeared normal. In a further series of confused reports Uganda radio announced during the weekend that all Ugandan front-line units had been cut off; that a Ugandan reconnaissance battalion had broken through and was occupying Tanzanian territory in order to cut invaders off from further supplies; that Cuban-led Tanzanian fighter bombers had been intercepted heading for Entebbe airport and one Ugandan plane shot down. All these allegations have been dismissed as "nonsense" by the Tanzanian Government. Our High Commission in Dar es Salaam report that according to a UNDP officer based at Bukoba, a Tanzanian to\vn on the west coast of Lake Victoria close to the Ugandan border, the town v/as bombed on 2? October by a Ugandan aircraft. /4-. Simultaneously SECRET