Violence reheats in Uganda

After a lull in violence in Uganda, another wave of killing, banditry, and lawlessness is sweeping the country. No one seems to know whether guerrillas belonging to underground opposition movements are responsible, Monitor contributor John Worrall reports.

In a hushed Parliament this week, the prime minister, Otema Alimadi, told of an attack by armed men on a public bus at Katooga village, some 60 miles northeast of Kampala, the capital, in which 14 people were killed. A Roman Catholic Church newspaper, Munno, attributed the attack to antigovernment guerrillas. Mr. Alimadi also told Parliament that 23 more people were killed in a gun battle between the armed men and government forces at Kayabwe, in western Uganda, last week.

Mr. Alimadi told Parliament that banditry was more rampant in regions where the opposition Democratic Party (mainly made up of Bagandans) had support than the regions where his own party, the Uganda People's Congress, was strongest. He said UPC members had been killed by men wearing military and police uniforms.

Opposition parties and underground groups have charged that President Milton Obote's UPC party won the 1980 election here ''by fraud.'' The party denies the charge, and a Commonwealth observer team has said the elections were as fair as possible under the circumstances.

President Obote has said he is willing to talk to any opposition party on Uganda soil, but not outside the country. One of Mr. Obote's main problems in uniting the country is that the powerful Baganda people, who live near Kampala, oppose him.