Uganda rebel amnesty extended by six months

KAMPALA, Uganda (Reuters) -- Uganda said Wednesday it had extended its amnesty for rebels by six months because it had failed to entice any of them to give up their arms.

"The amnesty act has been extended with effect from July 17," Justice Peter Onega, chairman of the Amnesty Commission set up to handle returning rebels, told Reuters.

"We haven't dealt with any cases (from fighters in the bush) yet but 174 cases have been referred to us from prison authorities," Onega said.

The law which came into effect in January and expired on Monday, offered an unqualified amnesty to all rebels who laid down their weapons.

None of the prison cases had been processed yet, Onega said.

In the past 10 years, the notoriously violent Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the north, and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the west, have displaced more than 400,000 people and kidnapped more than 2,000 children.

In January, the amnesty appeared to signal a new strategy by the government, which had earlier maintained that such rebels were criminals who could only be subdued by force.

But critics maintain the government has been half-hearted in its commitment to the amnesty offer.

"The government has not shown any goodwill in the implementation of that act," said Cecilia Ogwal, an anti-government member of parliament from northern Uganda.

The commission itself was only set up in June, after delays which Onega blamed on logistical problems.

But Onega said the commission, with a budget of $4.6 million, would now begin its work in earnest and would set up rehabilitation centers in the north and west of the country to help resettle any rebels who returned.

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