Ugandan exiled ex-president's return delayed

The return of Uganda's former president Apollo Milton Obote has been postponed to later date to be announced soon, an official said on Wednesday.

The Uganda People's Congress (UPC) National chairman, Hajji Badru Wegulo, told Xinhua by telephone that Obote was due to return to the country on Friday but there were some unforeseen bottlenecks which have delayed his return.

Wegulo said that the party is still consulting with the governments of Uganda and Zambia where Obote has lived for the last 20 years as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Obote is the head of UPC, an opposition political party vowing to take Uganda's presidency when the country holds its general elections in March 2006.

The return of Obote is expected to boost the party's support ahead of next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

However government officials observed that when Obote returns, he will have to answer for the atrocities committed during his regime.

During Obote's regime between 1981 and 1985, an estimated 300,000 people perished as the guerrilla forces led by the incumbent President Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army, battled with Obote's Uganda National Liberation Army.

The 81-year-old Obote, as prime minister of Uganda, received the instruments of power from the British colonialists in October 1962. He was sworn in as president in April 1966 but overthrown ina coup led by army commander Idi Amin in January 1971, then he fled to Tanzania where he stayed in exile until 1980.

In December 1980 Obote became president again after the UPC wonthe national elections. He was ousted in a military coup in July 1985 and fled to Lusaka where he has been living in exile.

Source: Xinhua