1,800 Give Up Rebellion

Mar 01, 2002

TWENTY-THREE rebels on Wednesday surrendered to the Amnesty Commission in Arua, 12 days after 20 others had turned themselves in, reports Grace Matsiko.

TWENTY-THREE rebels on Wednesday surrendered to the Amnesty Commission in Arua, 12 days after 20 others had turned themselves in, reports Grace Matsiko.This brings to 1,800, the number of rebels who have given up rebellion and have been resettled since July.Hajji Ganyana-Miiro, the commissioner for West Nile, said on Thursday, “Since we began operation, we have resettled 1,800 reporters nationwide.“Of those, 150 are from the Lord’s Resistance Army, others are from the West Nile Bank Front, ADF, Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF II) and West Nile Resistance Movement.”He said the number of reporters was increasing.“We are now facing an influx. Normally we have been receiving between 10 to 15 reporters a month, now there is a new trend. They are turning up in big numbers.”He said they were negotiating with UNRF II to give up rebellion.“They have about 700 soldiers at Rojo, Sudan, about 20 to 30 miles from the Uganda border,” Miiro said.“They have been giving difficult terms which were not readily accepted by the army and we don’t have the capacity to accommodate those demands but hopefully, they will come down,” he added.He said further negotiations were underway to repatriate ex-rebels from Kenya.Miiro said the biggest problem facing the commission was lack of funds. He said out of sh4.9b the commission budgeted for recurrent and development expenditure, the Government had in the last two years released only sh1b.Ends

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