Rebels ask government for amnesty while others are freed

A number of rebels from the former Holy Spirit movement of Alice Lakwena and some splinter groups of the Lord’s Resistance Army and the West Nile Bank Front have contacted the amnesty commission seeking to come home. In a 9 September Radio Uganda report, monitored by the BBC, the chairman of the commission, Justice Keronega, said the rebels had written through some of their colleagues who were now at home. He went on to say that about 200 detained former rebels had also applied for amnesty and their cases would be forwarded to the deputy public prosecutor for clearance, according to the report. Meanwhile, according to a separate Radio Uganda report on 11 September, the government announced that 34 ADF rebels, who had last month responded to the amnesty law by surrendering, had been set free after a one-month rehabilitation programme.