UGANDA

COMPENDIUM OF CONFLICTS IN UGANDA
national army. However, this
integration was complicated
by the fact that the UNRF
I lacked a complete
register of its membership.
Subsequent efforts to
develop such a register were
never completed, and the
integration of the UNRF I into
the NRA was undermined. 269
Though a number of UNRF
soldiers were integrated
into the NRA, not all maintained the rank they claimed
to have held in the UNRF I. According to a member
of the UNRF II political wing, “The agreement was
that UNRF combatants were to retain their ranks. But
people were demoted instead…Many UNRF deserted
the army, others retrenched, others retired. The whole
process of integration was not done”. 270 This increased
suspicion and mistrust between the UNRF and the NRA,
exacerbated by Museveni’s failure to honour the 1985
agreement, led to the establishment of the UNRF II.
At the same time, West Nile witnessed growing
insecurity, as more and more individuals were arrested,
killed or simply disappeared. The arrests of Moses Ali, Rajab Rembe, Major Abiriga, and
269 DANIDA, (June 2004) Community dynamics in West Nile: A situation analysis. p. 10
270 Interview with Asedri Oyemi, political wing of the UNRF II, 5th January 2003. In: Refugee Law Project.
(2004) Negotiating peace: Resolution of conflicts in the Uganda’s West Nile region, RLP working paper
no. 12, p. 13
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