Friday, March 05, 1999
Uganda rangers provided false image of safety
Miami president's daughter escaped
BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A camp on the edge of Uganda's Buhoma Mountains, near the home of rare and shy mountain gorillas, seems an unlikely place for violence. Or so thought Elizabeth Garland, a University of Chicago student and the daughter of Miami University President James C. Garland.
Ms. Garland, who escaped from Ugandan rebels who kidnapped and slaughtered eight foreign tourists Monday, told National Public Radio on Thursday that “No one had expected that they would attack (the park) because of all the presence of all the rangers.”
After all, she told NPR's Bob Edwards, the camp was a haven for tourists — where international tourism operators worked and backpackers vacationed, she said.
Most thought it was a safe spot because the park rangers provided protection, but in the aftermath of the attack, it appears that it was an attractive spot for the rebels “for that exact same reason,” Ms. Garland said.
The camp area in particular was a stockpile of weapons and radio equipment collected by the rangers, as well as food, clothing and cash that the tourists had packed for their journeys. All of these things were attractive to the hungry and poor rebels — a group based in Congo that's from the same militia that carried out the 1994 genocide of more than 500,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in Rwanda.
“It must have seemed like (a) ... sort of mother lode to them,” Ms. Garland said, who has declined requests to be interviewed by The Cincinnati Enquirer. “They got an enormous amount of supplies to keep them going.”
Ms. Garland said that one of her colleagues was abducted, though it was unclear who it was or the person's fate.
Dr. Garland said earlier this week his daughter was studying some of the native peoples and villages around this campsite and looking at the impact of tourism on their native society.
During the NPR interview, she said it was likely she wouldn't return to the mountains because it was clear the rebels were after whites and Westerners.
Ms. Garland has since learned from those who were captured and released that the rebels planned to simply kill the tourists and not bother kidnap ping them.
She said she would likely remain in Uganda, however, to continue her studies. Meantime, she is “devastated” about the attack on this community and how it might affect tourism.
“Basically, this one morning just completely pulled the rug out of the entire prospect of that, of all the hopes and aspirations they've built up.”
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