Uganda Massacre: Law of the jungle takes over as the rebels are hunted down and killed

THEY WERE sifting through the remains of the camps in the Bwindi National Park yesterday amid the scattered belongings of tourists, burnt- out Land Rovers and the shot-up guard posts.

Up in the hills, Ugandan and Rwandan troops were carrying out their search- and-destroy operations against the Hutu rebels who killed the eight Western holidaymakers, while an FBI team flew into Kampala to begin their investigation.Scotland Yard officers could join them in the next few days. The Foreign Office in London said a decision will be made today.

Yesterday, in reaction to the rape, mutilation and murder of the tourists and the shock and outrage, President Yoweri Museveni said those responsible would be captured and killed. Some have already died, tracked across the border to the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they had set up camp and were shot as they tried to scatter.

Lieutenant Charles Kakaire, leading one of the patrols, said: "They are in the Congo; we are going after them - we will get them."

In Kampala, Ugandan and US investigators began interviewing survivors. Some had witnessed horrific deaths, including the burning alive of a ranger in the camp. Many were said to be more traumatised than after their return to Kampala as the horror of what happened began to sink in.

Forensic experts are expected be go to the Bwindi park today. The bodies of the dead, four men and four women, were identified yesterday by a tour guide from Acacia Expeditions. Examinations revealing how they died had been done, although details were not immediately released.

As the victims' families mourned, there was relief among relatives of those who survived. Among them was the family of Gary Tappenden, whose girlfriend, Karren Collie, said: "I am going to give him a big kiss and a cuddle and not let him get away again."

The British government has asked for clarification of reports that the Ugandan tourist board received a letter two weeks ago in which Hutu rebels threatened to kill British and US tourists. Foreign Office minister Tony Lloyd said: "That's the question we have asked President Museveni to look into. If there were some truth in that it would be a matter of enormous importance." The Ugandan tourist board denied the claims.

The military adviser attached to the British High Commission made a two- hour journey to the Bwindi park and discovered a scene of terrible violence.

The Ugandan community warden, John Wagaba, was tied up and burned alive and some of his colleagues had been disabled by gunfire and then hacked to death. Damage to property had been selective. All the tourist vehicles had been set on fire, but the Ugandan ones had been spared.

The killings may have been frenzied but the attack preceding them was well-planned and executed in a difficult terrain of steep valleys and dense jungle. The Hutu militiamen crossed the border in the evening and gathered on the high ground around the Bwindi. In a masking manoeuvre, one group peeled off to attack the village of Butogota to draw away units of the Ugandan army in the area while others moved to the three safari camps.

They converged on the camps, set within a few hundred yards of each other, just before 7am and attacked the guard posts, manned by half-asleep rangers, with Kalashnikovs and grenades. While one group killed the guards, the others looted the cabins and tents and raced each other to get to the highest tent, a honeymoon suite, where a couple were staying, and dragged them out as they clung to each other. Rob Haubner, 48, and Susan Miller, 42, were the only Americans killed.

Some of the tourists escaped into the bush and made their way to a nearby village. Others, like the French deputy ambassador, Anne Peltier, was freed with a note from the guerrillas saying they were acting out of anger at British and American support for the Rwandan government. Sixteen others were frogmarched off with the British and American nationals being shoved and beaten and forced to walk barefoot.

An American, Linda Adams, managed to escape after pretending she had an asthma attack, and another tourist was also allowed to go.

Around midday three men, a Briton, an American and a New Zealander, were killed with machetes. Five others were killed later, and one of the women appeared to have been raped before being killed.

The remaining six tourists were abandoned at the border with a note given to the American tour operator Mark Ross saying their aim was to destabilise the Ugandan government, which knows full well that the damage to the tourist industry and the economic uncertainty of the violence on its borders will help to create such destabilisation. Thus President Museveni's pledge of a prompt and robust response to the rebels.

An American diplomat in Kampala said: " This is a game of pretty high stakes but the awful thing is that these innocent people were destroyed when all they wanted to do mind their own business and enjoy a holiday."