Ex-rebels worried about closure of Amnesty body

Hundreds of ex-combatants in West Nile Sub-region have expressed disappointment over the planned closure of Amnesty Commission, saying many have not yet been compensated.
The commission was established to resettle and reintegrate former rebel fighters.   
The commission’s officer-in-charge for West Nile, Lt Col (rtd) Obitre Gama, told some of the ex-rebels during a training in Yumbe District on Tuesday that the entity is poised to fold up in 2023.
“The Amnesty Commission is soon coming to an end, but we have been given another contract for two years that started in May 2021 and ends in May 2023. So, Amnesty Commission will not be an independent body, but it will be a department under the ministry of Justice [and Constitutional Affairs],” he said.

However, the ex-combatants and their leaders wondered why it is ending amid pending compensation.
“We are not happy that [the] Amnesty Commission is being phased out…We have members… who have not received any project from the commission and some of the ex-combatants didn’t receive their resettlement packages,” Mr Yusuf Asiku, the community focal person for the ex-combatants, said.
Mr Asiku said the unfulfilled pledges should be addressed before the commission stops independent operations.
Some of the activities implemented for the former rebels include apiary, carpentry, and grind milling.
The commission in its 20-year existence has received, resettled and reintegrated about 6,000 ex-rebels in Yumbe, a former hotbed of rebel activity, including against President Museveni’s government.

The returnees belonged to Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF-I) of Gen Moses Ali, now Second Deputy Premier, UNRF-II of late Ali Bamuze, who died on October 4, 2015 years after being integrated as an officer of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), the West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) I, and WNBF II of late Juma Oris and Maj Gen Taban Amin, respectively.
Mr Asiku said the community excludes some of their members from benefiting from other government programmes such as Development Response to Displacement Impact Project, Northern Uganda Social Action Fund , and Operation Wealth Creation .
After signing peace agreements, a number of the demobilised rebels enlisted into UPDF and police, while others resettled in their communities.
Mr Daudi Abdalatif, another ex-combatant, appealed to government to fulfil its pledges so that they can rebuild their families.

“We are getting tired of the lies government is telling us about payment of the settlement packages and compensation. The government [only] begins to think about ex-combatants when it is election season. When elections are over, they forget about us,” he said.
 Mr Alli Drasi, the secretary for security, told the ex-combatants to embrace the already signed peace agreement between the government and the defunct UNRF II in 2002.
“For the security to be okay, let’s move out of confusions that may put the country in problems. Let us maintain peace and denounce any kind of rebellion against the government,” he said.