US Will Open Millitary Training Base In Ethiopia

By DIANNA CAHN
KALAMA HILL, Uganda (AP) - Flat on their bellies in crackling new American uniforms, Ugandan soldiers aim their AK-47 assault rifles and mimic the sounds of gunfire.
``Incoming! You've got artillery! Get a clock direction and move out!'' barks Sgt. 1st Class Rick Masters. The Cincinnati native is one of 120 American soldiers sent to Uganda and Senegal to train the embryo of what the United States and other Western nations hope will become an African force to keep peace on the fractious continent.
``Africa should be able to take care of its own problems. It's the old concept: If a person's hungry, don't give them a fish, teach them how to fish,'' said Maj. Matthew Dansbury of Trenton, N.J., commander of the 54-man Army training team in Uganda.
The soldiers from Fort Bragg, N.C. - some from the Special Forces Group, others from the 18th Airborne Corps - arrived July 21 at this hilltop overlooking the Kabamba military training school, 150 miles west of Kampala, Uganda's capital.
For their eight-week stay in the African bush, they came armed with portable latrines, televisions, VCRs, desktop computers and a wide variety of field rations.
Fresh from fighting rebels in the restive northwest, the 770 Ugandan soldiers of the 3rd Batallion, 307th Infantry Brigade, camp in more modest conditions and live off cornmeal porridge and chapatis.
Many of the soldiers know the American trainers from earlier courses held in Uganda to improve the quality of the Ugandan People's Defense Force, a former guerrilla army that helped President Yoweri Museveni come to power in 1986.
The United States is conducting its first peacekeeper training exercises in Uganda and Senegal to show support for the two countries whose democratic and human rights records are fairly clean by African standards.
Although the program covers military basics like land navigation and marksmanship, it stresses the philosophy and tactics of peacekeeping.
Troops from several African nations drew mixed reviews for their performance in United Nations peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. And Nigerian peacekeepers operating in Liberia and Sierra Leone have been accused of bias, corruption and unprofessional behavior.
With a $15 million budget put up by the United States, the training program now has camps at Kalama Hill and at Thies, Senegal, and is to be expanded by year's end with camps in Mali, Ethiopia and Malawi. Three other locations are still to be named.
The idea of an all-African peacekeeping force first was floated by then Secretary of State Warren Christopher during an African tour in late 1996. Response was less than enthusiastic. South Africa was downright hostile, fearing Washington wanted it to shoulder the responsibility.
But after Western-led peacekeeping debacles in Somalia and Rwanda - where U.N.-mandated forces either failed to resolve a conflict or failed to intervene to stop a genocide - and the rebellion in the former Zaire with its thousands of refugees, the big seven industrial nations and Russia threw their support behind the idea in June.
The United Nations backs the initiative but has not formally endorsed it. ``You have a very big task because you are pioneers,'' Uganda's acting chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Ivan Koreta, told the trainees at an opening ceremony last month.
Lt. Ruhinda Robinson, a Ugandan who attended previous Special Forces courses and now is being taught how to train his Ugandan colleagues, said: ``It's teaching us how to defend ourselves. Then ... we can help defend our neighbors.''
Neighboring Sudan is not happy with the U.S. program. An unidentified Sudanese official was quoted in the state-run newspaper Al Anbaa on Thursday as saying the course is a ploy to help Uganda train rebels in southern Sudan.
Sudan has accused Uganda of supporting the Sudan People's Liberation Army in its rebellion. Museveni's government denies that.
Although the Ugandans are being trained for peacekeeping missions, several American instructors acknowledged that the soldiers were most highly motivated by drills that could help them in combat at home.
But Lt. Col. Levi Karahunga, commander of the Ugandan troops, said the two issues are closely related.
``If a neighbor does not sleep well, then you, too, are not sleeping well, because you will spend a lot of time checking on him to see how he is doing.''

Salahdin Maow

Last modified: Thu Mar 25 14:21:01 MET