Museveni Won’t Compensate Illegal Karamoja Guns

Nov 19, 2001

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has said the Government will not compensate Karimojong warriors for illegal guns recovered under the disarmament programme.

By Nathan Etengu PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has said the Government will not compensate Karimojong warriors for illegal guns recovered under the disarmament programme. He said the warriors who voluntarily surrender their guns would be issued with certificates. Those who resist the exercise will be arrested, prosecuted and jailed, he said. Museveni, who started his five-day tour of the Karamoja region yesterday, also said the Government might consider warriors who surrender arms for a poverty alleviation credit scheme. “The illegal possession of guns is a criminal offence. So how do you expect me to compensate criminals,” Museveni was quoted to have told a security meeting he held with UPDF officers. The closed meeting was also attended by state ministers Ruth Nankabirwa (defence), Baguma Isoke (water) and Peter Lokeris for Karamoja affairs. Sources said Museveni was emphatic on the reports attributed to Lokeris over the compensation of the Karimojong who surrender their guns. The source said Lokeris denied having said the Karimojong must be compensated for the guns they surrender. Museveni, who is camped near Morulinga rock in Kangole sub-county, arrived at around 12:35pm in a downpour that soaked the ministers and leaders from Moroto and Nakapiripirit districts who turned up to welcomed him. Museveni said during the meeting that the disarmament programme was on course and that nothing would be done to stop the exercise. Museveni also defended the UPDF over the recent arrest of 19 Karimojong warriors in connection with the September 13 cattle raid at Ngariam, Katakwi district, in which 17 people were killed and 12 others injured. He said the suspects whom the local leaders claim to be innocent would be released if the leaders assist in the arrest of the actual criminals. “If you are sent to go and collect some millet that had got mixed with sand, do you expect to collect the millet and leave out the sand,” Museveni asked. He said both the good and bad elements were bound to be arrested in the process of apprehending the wrong elements in society. He said the UPDF who effected the arrest were not the right personnel to carry out the investigations and arrest of such suspects, but they had only intervened. Lokeris and the MP for Pian county, Mr. Paul Aparite Lokeris, had complained to Museveni that the 19 suspects now held in Soroti were innocent civilians who were arrested while going for prayers. They also said some of those arrested were lured to “a security meeting” in which they were later arrested. Museveni said he was the one who directed the reduction in the number of LDUs to be recruited from every sub-county for the disarmament programme. He said he directed the number be reduced from 146 to 60 LDUs per sub-county after realising that the budgetary provisions would not allow the UPDF to recruit and maintain 146 LDUs per sub-county. Museveni, who is to spend three days in Moroto and Nakapiripirit, was last evening expected to host the elders from the two districts to a campfire and bull roasting dinner. Ends

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