World Bank gives $4.2 million to resettle ex-rebels

The World Bank has given Uganda US $4.2 million to fund a project to resettle an estimated 11,000 former rebel fighters, an official said on Tuesday.

Moses Draku, spokesman of the Uganda Amnesty Commission, told IRIN that 4,000 other ex-combatants had already been integrated into communities of their choice.

"We give them a minimum resettlement package that includes a mattress, a jerry can, seeds and some farming implements, and we implement the programme with other partners who have be handling the psychosocial counseling of these people since they came out of the bush," said Draku.

A statement by the head of the commission, Justice Peter Onega, urged members of the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group, which has fought the government and terrorised civilians in northern Uganda for nearly 19 years, to engage in a genuine and meaningful dialogue with the government to bring the conflict to an end.

In 2000, the Ugandan government enacted an amnesty law that granted unconditional amnesty to any Ugandan engaged in armed rebellion who surrendered and denounced violence.