US volunteer charged with terrorism in Uganda

KAMPALA, Dec 1 (Reuters) An American volunteer worker appeared in a Ugandan court today charged with terrorism after being caught with a submachinegun, a pistol and 38 rounds of ammunition, according to the charge sheet.

Christopher John Boehlke, 26, who works for a local charity helping old people in east Uganda, was arrested in Gulu, in the war-torn north of the country on November 15.

''On him we found an SMG (submachinegun), a pistol, rounds of ammunition and some military uniforms,'' police spokesman Edward Ochon told Reuters, adding that Boehlke had failed to explain how he got the weapons.

Boehlke, whom the charge sheet described as an ''American cattle keeper'' from New York State, appeared for a few minutes in a Kampala court. He came with his father, brother and a US embassy official, a Reuters witness saw.

As Boehlke was led away from court to prison, he grabbed a journalist's camera and tried to push him away, while covering his face with a newspaper.

The court referred an application for bail he had made to the High Court because terrorism is a capital offence.

The maximum sentence faced by Boehlke, who has not yet made a formal plea, is death.

But Ochon said such an outcome was unlikely.

Boehlke was charged under a section of the 2002 Terrorism Act which prohibits the ''unlawful importation, sale, making, manufacture or distribution of any firearms, explosive, ammunition or bomb.'' His case came after Uganda in March deported an American evangelist also charged with terrorism after police said they found assault rifles hidden in his bedroom days before a February presidential election.

Ever since President Yoweri Museveni came to power 20 years ago his government has been fighting several rebel groups it brands ''terrorists'', such as the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels notorious for brutal attacks on civilians in the north.

It has also alleged incursions by various other rebel groups operating around its borders, particularly from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

REUTERS PDM KN1834