POLITICS-UGANDA: Rebel Army Uses Force to Recruit Youth

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Jun 10 1998 (IPS) - The death toll in a Ugandan rebel army’s attack on a technical college in the western region continues to rise amid fears that the rebel group may step up its forced recruitment of youth.

Ugandan newspapers reported on Wednesday that the death toll in Monday’s attack by the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF) had risen to 80 and that another 60 people were missing and feared abducted.

The ‘New Vision’ newspaper reported on Tuesday that 60 people — mostly students and soldiers — were killed in Kichwamba Technical Training College, 316 kilometres west of the capital Kampala, by the ADF rebels.

The ADF, which is seeking to topple the government of President Yoweri Museveni, operates in western Uganda on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Museveni, himself a former rebel leader, said Tuesday that the ADF included notorious security agents from the former regime of dictator Idi Amin whose soldiers slaughtered about half-a-million Ugandans between 1971 and 1979.

Uganda’s army spokesman, Shaban Bantariza, told journalists this week that the Kichwamba incident occurred after 40 government soldiers stationed at the college were overpowered by an ADF force of more than 100 soldiers.

He said the students, unwilling to abandon their studies and serve in the rebel ranks, barricaded themselves inside their dormitories and the rebels poured petrol before setting fire to it.

‘The New Vision’ said all the bodies of the victims were burned to ashes in the fire that kept burning up to late Monday afternoon. Wailing residents waded through scattered property in search of their loved ones.

The only girl’s dormitory was not set ablaze, because the rebels ran out of petrol, said the newspaper. The college had 420 students.

More than 10,000 children — mostly school children — have been abducted by rebels in Uganda during the past three years, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund (Unicef).

The main culprit is the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which is holding 21 school girls abducted on October 10, 1996.

Headed by herbalist Joseph Kony, the LRA began its fight against Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) government in 1987, shortly after the defeat of a rebellion by the Holy Spirit Movement, led by Kony’s cousin Alice Lakwena.

The LRA is dominated by people from the Acholi ethnic group, which straddles the Uganda/Sudan border. Its goal is to rule Uganda on the basis of the 10 biblical commandments.

The other rebel group also accused of kidnapping children is the West Nile Bank Front (WNBF). It is dominated by people from the West Nile Region — Madis, Lugbaras, Aringas and Nubians — who formed the bulk of the army of ousted dictator Amin. The group’s leader, Col. Juma Oris, was a senior official in Amin’s regime.

After Amin’s ouster in 1979, many of his henchmen fled to neighbouring countries, mainly Sudan and the DRC, from where they later infiltrated Uganda.

The Ugandan authorities allege that the Islamic fundamentalist regime in the Sudan is backing the three rebel groups. Sudan also counters that Uganda is supporting the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

Many in Uganda blame the army for doing little to protect civilians from the three-front rebel onslaught.

More than 300,000 people have been displaced by the conflict between the LRA and government troops in the north. Similarly, ADF activities have displaced at least 80,000 people from their homes in western Uganda.