Museveni meets Red Cross doctor he abducted, asks him to write experience

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President Museveni has met an old friend, Dr.Pierre Perrin, formerly working with the International Committee of the Red Cross, abducted by National Resistance Army (NRA) and expelled by government forces in 1984 at the height of the NRA liberation struggle in Luwero triangle.

On January 7, 1984, eleven employees of the Red Cross then on a routine medical mission fell into an ambush by the NRA rebels that had infiltrated Luwero.

The employees included Dr. Pierre who was then Chief medical officer at the time of capture and helped several injured soldiers.

On January 9th, the NRA released 7 hostages; 4 Swiss including Pierre’s wife Christine Perrin who was then a nurse with ICRC and 3 Ugandans. Two weeks later the rest of the hostages were set free.

However, Pierre and his Swiss team where immediately arrested by the government forces and questioned about Museveni and the NRA before being expelled from Uganda.

On Tuesday afternoon, Museveni met with this old friend of his at State House Entebbe.

“To my old friend Dr. Perrin of the Red Cross whom I met in interesting circumstances in 1984, January just before our big January victory in Masindi on the 20th of February,” President Museveni wrote in a copy of the Mustard seed that he donated to Dr. Perrin.

“You were on a medical mission when I met you. I have been dying to see you. I can still recognize you very well. It was really dramatic, so many interesting things…I have always been asking about you,” Museveni said of his comrade.

Dr.Perrin is now retired and is an expert in the Public Health and Human Security in Complex emergencies based in Choulets, Sauvery, France.

He later married Christine and the couple has three children; a pediatrician, civil engineer and systems research engineer.

“To Madam Perrin whom I missed to meet 34 years ago, which was much better; otherwise, it would have been too tiring for her to walk 200 miles to and from Ngoma peninsula. I salute the stamina of Dr. Perrin for the long walk,”Museveni added.

President Museveni said he has been looking for Dr. Pierre since the end of the war until recently when he talked to the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross who visited Uganda and promised to trace him.

He encouraged him to write his experiences at the time.

Dr. Pierre commended Museveni for the economic development the country has undergone since the war. He donated to him one of his latest books in which he mentions him (Museveni).

They couple was accompanied to State House by the Head of Delegation, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Uganda Zoran Jovanovic and the International Relations and Communications expert at ICRC in Uganda Judith Kiconco.

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