Shots Above the Music

Attired in a flashy crimson shirt and surrounded by security police, Apolo Milton Obote, the President of Uganda, was making his way through a cheering mob. He was leaving Kampala's Lugogo Stadium, where his ruling People's Congress had just approved his "Common Man's Charter," which was designed to turn his country into a socialist one-party state. While the army band blared out the party song, "Uganda Is Marching Forward," three shots rang out. Obote, 44, a onetime herdboy who led his country (pop. 8,000,000) to independence seven years ago, clutched his head and fell. In the crowd, women moaned and groveled on the ground, and party officials beat the air in rage.

Obote was rushed to a hospital, where doctors said that he had suffered a head wound but would recover. His government declared a state of emergency, banned the small opposition Democratic Party, and kept a watchful eye on the Buganda area, largest of the four former tribal kingdoms within Uganda. In transforming his country into a republic, Obote has harshly suppressed many of Buganda's people. Three years ago, Obote's troops drove the once powerful Kabaka of Buganda, who was known as "King Freddie," from his palace in Kampala.

Freddie fled into exile and died last month in London. The cause of death, said the coroner's report, was an extremely high level of alcohol in his bloodstream. The Kabaka's followers claimed he had been poisoned by Obote's agents and swore revenge. Outside the stadium last week police seized a man who was thought to be one of the Kabaka's followers.

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