Africa-Press – Uganda. Top members of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) on Friday visited families of their colleagues in Isingiro District who died in the Bush War.
This was done as part of activities leading to Tarehe Sita Day, which will be celebrated today at Kakyeka stadium in Mbarara City.
The Chief of Civil Military Cooperation, Brig Gen Emmanuel Rwashande, said the visit was intended to make the families feel relevant to the history of the country.
“Our purpose of visit is to see those who participated in the struggle, they were strategic partners. They are the people who helped in connecting and coordinating with the Front for National Salvation (Fronasa) fighters, most of them supported between 1972 and 1979 and then in the 1980s when we were coming as National Resistance Army (NRA),” he said.
“They helped in both Fronasa and NRA wars, they did intelligence and information, supplied food and recruitment,” he added.
Among those visited were two families of the late Asanasio Baguma and Frank Guma in Kakamba Village, Bukanga County.
Ms Catherine Baguma, 75, said her late husband, Asanansio Baguma, supported the army while in Tanzania using their home.
“At first, I heard my husband and his friend …Frank conversing and whispering that they were going to Gorogoro, Tanzania, to join Fronasa soldiers. He even sold his two cows that he wanted to go to the bush to join the struggle, later our home was the centre of the revolution,” she revealed.
She added: “My husband always pretended to be smuggling food to Tanzania yet he was always taking food such as beans, millet flour, and other items such as shoes to Fronasa training centres. Later, Amin soldiers suspected him of going to the bush, he was arrested and beaten badly.”
Baguma was poisoned in June 1986 a few months after the ruling government had taken over, and Frank Guma, who served at the rank of colonel, later died a natural death in 1995.
Maj Gen Don Nabasa, the commandant of the Military Police, says this year’s Tarehe Sita anniversary is being celebrated in Mbarara as a way to thank residents who sacrificed to fight for the liberation of Uganda.
“This regional celebration in Mbarara is intended to give back to those who sacrificed themselves to ensure liberation of Uganda’s peaceful and socio-economic transformation from this region,” he said.
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