Mt. Rwenzori Park Re-Opens To Tourists

By Charlotte Kukunda THE Mount Rwenzori National Park was officially re-opened yesterday with the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) Chief of Staff pledging to keep 2,000 troops at 27 critical sites. Brig. James Kazini told the press yesterday at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel that the UDPF has occupied former enemy bases and would put up permanent zonal forces and a permanent security helicopter landing site for reinforcement. He said this would be done if Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) approves. Kazini said the Government has declared the park safe again for human activity that after the UPDF contained the ADF rebels. He presented a strategy for the maintenance of peace and stability in the area. "The enemy has always used these mountains as a springboard. There are currently 14 infantry battalions in the mountains. We shall use 1,000 soldiers in the 27 areas and keep interchanging them with the extra thousand to be kept in the lowlands," Kazini said. Tour operators who attending the re-opening asked the Government to give a 100 percent assurance of security, and change the international perception of the area after a spell four years. The Government closed the park at the peak of ADF rebel activity in July 1997, long before the Bwindi incident. The tour operators included those under the Uganda Tourist Association (UTA), their president Wolfgang Thomes, the proprietor Pearl of Africa, Kelley MacTavish, the commissioner of tourism, Blandina Shakira, the director Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), Robbie Robinson and the Rev. Yeko Ongora Atwai, the chairman UWA board of trustees. Prof. Edward Rugumayo, the minister of tourism, trade and industry attended the briefing. He said, "What is important to us today is to inform the world that it's safe to visit, relax and enjoy the mountains." UWA has given the Rwenzori Mountaineering Services, an association formed by the community that lives around the mountains, the concession to control and sell permits, train guides, construct camps along the trails and care take for the tourists. A permit for the 17-day trip up or around the mountains costs US$900. Responding to concerns of potential environmental degradation resulting from intensive human invasion, Robinson said the area was big enough to accommodate the numbers. "The 27 points where UPDF will be based in the Rwenzoris is not taking up significant space because the park is 1,000 square kilometres. We are only allowing 10 tourists per day and 70 people in those mountains," he said. Ends