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The Monitor (Kampala)
October 4, 2003
Posted to the web October 3, 2003
Frank Nyakairu & Henry H. Ssali
Kampala
The Commander of the Reserve Forces, Lt. Gen. Salim Saleh, is angry with government for failure to fully fund his 4 billion-shilling project aimed at ending the Lord's Resistance Army war.
"I'm angry with the government. They refused to give me money for that project but we have gone ahead with the wananchi and done it," Gen. Saleh told The Monitor in an interview this week.
In his Security and Production Programme (SPP) proposal, Saleh asked government for Shs 4.7 billion to use on specific projects aimed at ending the 17-year long insurgency that has ravaged much of northern Uganda, and recently parts of Teso.
SPP mainly focuses on strengthening community defence by "using community youth volunteers who are recruited and trained especially to secure production areas". The project also aims at reducing dependence on food aid for about one million people living in camps for the internally displaced in the Acholi sub-region.
The proposal was issued in May. It is said to have excited parliamentarians who gave it a go-ahead.
But of the amount, Saleh said government "has only released Shs 14 million and that is nothing".
"They [government] have made us lose this season. We would be very far by now. But we have gone ahead. For example, I'm using my own tractor to dig," the general said.
Saleh had proposed that government provides 40 tractors to set up farms in settlement camps.
The Minister of State for Finance (General Duties), Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana, told The Monitor that Saleh's proposal had earlier been considered by his ministry.
"By the time the general came up with the idea, the [Finance] ministry had considered exactly the same idea. We cannot tell the overall cost but we have already purchased five tractors to turn the settlement camps into production units," Rukutana said.
Saleh had also proposed the "Cash for Peace" strategy for the LRA citing how it had been successful with the rebels of the UNRF II in West Nile.
UNRF II led by Maj. Gen. Ali Bamuze negotiated a settlement with government last year in which they were rewarded with about Shs 4 billion in return for abandoning rebellion.
Saleh was one of the generals to command a military campaign against the LRA in the '90s.
Today he still plays a crucial role as a member of the peace team.
LRA, Karimojong swapping guns
Meanwhile, members of Parliament from eastern Uganda say that insecurity in their area is on the rise in the wake of a guns-for-cattle exchange between the Karimojong rustlrs and the Joseph Kony-led rebels.
"The cattle rustlers have struck a deal with the rebels. They get guns, the LRA take the animals," Mr Elijah Okupa (Kasilo) said in an interview on Tuesday.
He said as a result, the people in Teso are facing untold suffering.
This new twist is frustrating the massive disarmament process that government launched in Karamoja last year.
In June, the LRA crossed over into Teso causing the figure of the displaced people in the sub-region to rise from 28,000 to 300,000.
"The rebels and the rustlers are now jointly harassing our people," Okupa said.
Samia Bugwe MP Aggrey Awori echoed Okupa, saying Teso is a powder keg situation that could easily explode.
Awori said that the Arrow Group, made up of civilian volunteers to help the UPDF fight Kony, is a bunch of unemployed youth who are looking for something to do. He said they cannot ensure security in the area.
The Arrow Group co-ordinator, Mr Musa Ecweru, did not commit himself on whether the rustlers were getting guns from the LRA.
"I cannot dispute that but I can also not confirm it; I am not a co-ordinator for either the LRA or the rustlers," he said on Wednesday.
On the issue of recent loss of nine Arrow Boys in battle, Ecweru said, "We are not at a tea party, we are at war."
Army Spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza was hesitant to comment on the Karimojong - LRA relationship.
"The Defence minister is addressing security issues to the media today [Friday]; I cannot speak when he has called the press," he said.
