Over 5,000 former rebels to join Ugandan army: report

Posted by Xinhua News Agency
August 8, 2005

KAMPALA, Aug 8, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Over 5,000 West Nile Bank Front ( WNBF) ex-rebels are to be integrated into the Ugandan army, local newspaper The New Vision reported on Monday.

The former commander in chief of the now defunct WNBF, Taban Amin, was quoted as saying that among the ex-combatants who will join the army included tank instructors, artillery and anti- aircraft crew with military and guerrilla experience of over 20 years.

Many of the ex-combatants had shown interest in joining the army, he said, adding that he was in contact with his 14,300 former troops, most of them are settled in the northwestern part of the country.

He said that some of them would be shaped into a reserve force and the rest would form a task force for the ruling National Resistance Movement headed by President Yoweri Museveni.

Taban Amin had established bases in the areas neighboring the Democratic Republic of the Congo to topple President Museveni's government before signing a peace agreement with the government in later 2003.

Following the peace deal, Amin disbanded the group and agreed to work with the government.

Taban Amin is the son to Uganda's former military dictator Idi Amin who was accused of responsibility for the death of over 400, 000 people during his rule in the 1970s.