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DATE=OCTOBER 2, 2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-267333

TITLE=UGANDA REBELS (L ONLY)

BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT:

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Ugandan rebels are believed to be behind a grenade attack that killed an Italian Roman Catholic missionary. As VOA's Scott Stearns reports, civilians are regular targets for rebels in northern Uganda who have been fighting the government for 13 years.

TEXT: Father Raffaele Di Bari was killed as he returned from saying Sunday mass south of the Ugandan town of Kitgum. The 71-year-old missionary died when a hand grenade was thrown into his car.

The Italian-based missionary news agency MISNA says a nun and a catechist traveling with Father Di Bari escaped without injury before the car exploded. Father Di Bari had worked in Uganda since 1959 for the Comboni Missionary Society. He is expected to be buried at his parish in Pajure, 300 kilometers north of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

Father Di Bari had been highly critical of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, which is fighting in northern Uganda against the government of President Yoweri Museveni.

Led by a former altar boy, Lord's Resistance rebels have been fighting 13 years to install a government based on the biblical Ten Commandments. Rebels have abducted thousands of Ugandan children and taken them to camps in Sudan where they are trained as soldiers, used as porters, or taken as wives.

Uganda says Sudan is backing the Lord's Resistance Army. Sudan says Uganda is supporting the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army. Both deny the other's claims.

Uganda's foreign minister says the two countries have reached a deal to station Egyptian and Libyan military observers along the border. He says the unarmed observers would ensure that nothing taking place on the Ugandan side of the border undermines Sudanese security.

While Egypt and Libya are leading efforts to improve relations between Sudan and Uganda, there is no indication yet that either country's rebels are slowing their campaigns. (SIGNED)

NEB/SS/GE/PFH