By Mwanguhya Charles Mpagi
Dec 23, 2003
KAMPALA â About 40,000 rebels are fighting President Museveniâs government, a new report says.
The report, released by the Amnesty Commission on Friday, estimates that there are more than 40,000 rebels belonging to 22 rebel groups fighting the government.
âAt the time of establishing the Amnesty Commission, The Ministry of Internal Affairs put the number of potential reporters [rebels who were likely to surrender] at 50,000,â the report says.
âTo date about 10,000 of them have reported to the commission. The total number of [those remaining] can therefore be put at about 40,000,â the report says.
The Commissioner for West Nile region, Hajji Ganyana Miiro, unveiled the report at the Commissionâs headquarters on Buganda Road.
He said that since 1986 when the National Resistance Movement took power, âa number of groups have taken up arms to fight it and a number of regions in the country have been affected.â
The report lists 22 groups, including the Allied Democratic Forces, which pitched camp in western Uganda between 1996 and 2001.
Remnants of the ADF are still reported in some parts of eastern Congo.
Other rebel groups listed include the Uganda National rescue Front II, the West Nile Bank Front, Action Restore Peace [ARP], Citizen Army for Multi Party Politics [CAMP], Force Obote Back [FOBA], Former Uganda National Army [FUNA], Holy Spirit Movement [HSM] of Alice Lakwena â which was replaced by the Lordâs Resistance Army [LRA] of Joseph Kony.
The National Union for the Liberation of Uganda [NALU], National Federal Army [NFA] and the Ninth October Movement [NOM] are also listed together with the Peopleâs Redemption Army [PRA] linked to renegade army officers Anthony Kyakabale, Samson Mande and Edson Muzoora.
Others are the Uganda Democratic Army/ Alliance [UDA/F], Uganda Federal Democratic Front [UFDF] and Uganda Freedom Movement [UFM].
The 34-page report says that the majority of the rebels are based in southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and some are living in Kenya and Europe.
The report says that between 2000 and 2003, 10,000 rebels surrendered and applied for amnesty.
Out of the 10,000, 3,848 belonged to the LRA, 2,902 to UNRF II, 1,990 from WNBF and 659 from the ADF.
 2003 The Monitor Publications
