News In Brief

Thousands said to die in crackdown in Uganda

The Washington Post reported Sunday that the Ugandan Army had killed or intentionally starved to death thousands of civililans in the past few months. The newspaper said the action was part of what appeared to be an officially sanctioned crackdown against rebels in the western part of the country.

It quoted Ugandans and foreign observers as saying the deaths, mostly of women and children, as well as hundreds of political arrests, were worse than the atrocities of former President Idi Amin's rule.

A Uganda Embassy official in Washington said the reports were ''totally untrue.''