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UNRF II Join UPDF

New Vision (Kampala)
NEWS
January 3, 2003
Posted to the web January 3, 2003
Kampala
BARELY two weeks after the signing a peace pact with the Uganda National Rescue
Front (UNRF II), the Government has made good its promise to integrate some of
the ex-rebels into the national army.
James Odong reports that army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza told The New
Vision yesterday that 470 former rebels had qualified to join the UPDF.
"After subjecting them to the screening exercise, 470 have qualified to join
the UPDF, but they are not going to be absorbed right away because they are
still waiting for their packages," Bantariza said.
The December 24 peace agreement provides among others that UNRF II officers who
wish and qualify to join the UPDF shall retain their ranks if they pass exams
set by the UP DF.
Bantariza said the screening exercise eliminated the very old, the lowly
educated and the sickly from among those who wished to join the UPDF.
President Yoweri Museveni, who witnessed the signing of the agreement at Yumbe
Boma Grounds, promised the UNRF II that the Government would honour the pact.
Apart from integration into the army, the agreement also provides that those
who do not qualify to serve in the UPDF and those who opt to rejoin civilian
life, will be demobilised and resettled by January 24.
The agreement also mandates the Government to facilitate the return of 135
child-soldiers to school and assist 10 nominated UNRF officers to get jobs.

   

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