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Uganda Foreign Assistance in the 1980s
Tanzanian influence increased after Amin's departure.
The
TPDF maintained about 20,000 troops in Uganda to help
restore
peace. In addition, Tanzanian soldiers managed a
large-scale army
training program at Mbarara. By mid-1980, however, tension
between TPDF personnel and southern Ugandans, especially
Baganda,
prompted Dar es Salaam to withdraw about one-half of its
troops.
Despite this decision and continuing clashes between
Tanzanian
troops and Ugandan citizens, President Nyerere then agreed
to
deploy a 1,000-man police unit to Uganda. By mid-1982,
Nyerere
further reduced Tanzania's military presence, citing the
high
cost of maintaining troops in Uganda. When the training
missions
of the remaining 800 troops were hampered by
misunderstandings
and delays, they, too, were withdrawn.
Relations with Britain gradually improved after 1980,
when
Milton Obote began his second term as president, this time
emphasizing private-sector development in Uganda's
shattered
economy. From 1982 until 1984, British soldiers in the
Commonwealth Military Training Mission trained
approximately
4,000 Ugandan Army recruits. On August 19, 1984, Kampala
and
London signed a military training agreement that increased
the
British presence from thirteen to twenty men.
After a good-will visit to the Democratic People's
Republic
of Korea (North Korea) in 1981, Obote signed a cooperation
agreement covering a variety of technical, economic, and
cultural
areas. P'yngyang agreed to deploy a military team of
thirty
officers to Uganda, primarily to manage maintenance
projects and
infantry training in Gulu. During the 1980s, the North
Korean
officers often led UNLA combat units in the field against
antigovernment guerrillas; such operations reportedly claimed
the
lives of at least three North Koreans. The North Korean
contingent left Uganda in September 1985, a few months
after the
military coup that deposed Obote.
Ugandan-Tanzanian relations improved after Museveni
came to
power in 1986, and Tanzanian military assistance resumed.
In late
1986, about thirty military advisers replaced a British
Military
Advisory Training Team that had left Uganda. In January
1987, a
British representative returned to Uganda with a small,
nonresident training team, and a substantial, although
unknown,
number of Tanzanians remained to serve as advisers and
trainers.
Between 1988 and 1990, Tanzanian instructors managed
portions of
Uganda's basic training program. In addition, many NRA
troops
studied at Tanzania's National Military Leadership Academy
in
Monduli and the School of Infantry in Nachingwea.
Libya, which provided weapons to the NRA before it
seized
power, maintained cordial relations with Kampala after
1986 by
furnishing a variety of assistance. In 1986 and 1987,
Tripoli was
Uganda's main arms supplier, and by early 1988, Libya had
delivered an impressive array of weapons, including
aircraft,
antiaircraft artillery, multiple rocket launchers, and
small arms
and ammunition. Libyan security assistance declined in
late 1988
and 1989, when the extent of Libyan military aid to Uganda
was
unknown. Estimates of the number of Libyan advisers
serving in
Uganda in 1989 ranged from several dozen to 3,000; by
1990,
however, most western observers believed that the Libyan
military
presence in Uganda was minimal. Unconfirmed reports
accused some
Libyans of racism against Ugandans in the NRA, but some
military
assistance continued, nonetheless.
After 1986 Moscow's relations with Kampala shifted in
emphasis. Between 1986 and 1988, the Soviet Union provided
more
than US$20 million in weapons to the Museveni regime. In
November
1988, the Ugandan Ministry of Defense began talks with a
Soviet
manufacturer to purchase an An-32 transport aircraft, but
a year
later, the aircraft had not been delivered. By mid-1989,
Moscow
had halted military aid to Uganda as part of its
commitment to
reduce its military role in sub-Saharan Africa.
Thereafter,
Ugandan-Soviet relations concentrated on economic and
cultural
cooperation.
In the late 1980s, Museveni asked North Korea to return
to
Uganda to train NRA fighters in the use of North Korean
equipment. North Korean advisers helped train Ugandan
military,
police, and security personnel. Pyongyang also supplied a
variety
of military assistance. For example, a North Korean
consignment
of weapons offloaded at Dar es Salaam for transshipment to
Uganda
in late 1987 included Soviet-built SA-7 surface-to-air
missiles,
sixty anti-aircraft guns, eight truck-mounted rocket
launchers,
ten armored personnel carriers, and an unknown amount of
ammunition. Similar deliveries of military equipment
continued
into the early 1990s.
United States relations with Uganda lacked any military
emphasis, but several private corporations sold military
equipment to Uganda in the late 1980s. Museveni sought to
improve
ties that had been strained for more than a decade, and in
response to these efforts, Washington increased economic
assistance to Uganda. In 1990 United States officials
implemented
an International Military Education and Training (IMET)
program
that brought Ugandans to the United States for command and
staff
training, infantry officer courses, medical training, and
courses
in vehicle maintenance.
Data as of December 1990
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