/ 12 January 1999

KAMPALA EMBASSIES CLOSE

THE diplomatic missions of Britain and the United States in the Ugandan capital were closed to the public Monday after anonymous callers made bomb threats. Workers, mainly guards, at the building housing both missions on the main street leading to the Ugandan parliament said they had only been told that the offices would remain closed from Monday until further notice. Both the Ugandan army and police, together with a few US embassy guards, were manning the gates. Sources at the US embassy said that they had received a bomb threat last week and immediately proceeded to scale down the mission’s activities and restrict entry.The street, which was closed to traffic following simultaneous bomb attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on August 7, had just been reopened as a one-way street.