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Uganda: For Veterans, the Struggle Continues
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The Monitor (Kampala)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Edgar R. Batte
Frank Rwatamagufa (not real name) retired from the army more than a decade ago. In the army, he served as a tank expert. However, when his time in the army was over, he had to start afresh as a civilian and this meant finding something to keep him and his family of eight going.
It was his turning point and this is when it dawned on him that life outside the military frontiers was no easy walk. With his retirement package, he had been able to acquire land and use part of it to educate his children further in school. But soon, his package was fast running out and he badly needed a job. His military skills however were not opening doors; the job market suddenly seemed hostile.
It was a new war, one for which he was not prepared.
Rwatamagufa is one of thousands of veterans in Uganda for whom the personal experience of finding their feet outside the army is a daily challenge. One other thing they share in common is the virtual indifference of policy in addressing soldier-turned-civilian transitions.
There are over 36,351 veterans with an estimated 200,000 dependants, including widows and orphans belonging to the National Resistance Movement Army which is now the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces.
The real number of veterans is much higher taking into account several wars and armies that have operated in Uganda in the last 30 years.
Some organisations including the Uganda Police Force and state security groups have been people with military skills who have since retired but may not be classified as veterans.
Then there are the self-demobilised persons who are the equivalent of undocumented workers, faceless men and women who for social reasons walk away from the violence-filled life of combat to isolated villages and towns.
For Rwatamagufa, the biggest challenge was finding an occupation to meet his needs and maintain his dignity. Wherever he went, potential employers had their reservations about employing an ex- combatant.
This is one of the challenges Samuel Mweru Byachi, who speaks for veterans at the Uganda Veterans Assistance Board (Uvab) says they face when seeking to start civilian life.
"It is an environment of suspicion. When we [soldiers] go out to seek jobs, employers are very sceptical given our kind of background. Many of the veterans have served in security organs like the Internal Security Organisation (Iso) and Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI).
Employers naturally have reservations," Mweru explained. That's besides the challenge of limited marketable skills for many, for instance those who may have trained as tank experts, in anti mining or as air space experts. When they are laid off, they won't easily find their skills as much relevant and useful.
Addressing these challenges has been equally painful for the Uvab.
It's ideal budget is Shs2b a year but it only receives Shs500m, a quarter of what it needs. Ultimately, problems have been piling up and there is no money to fix them.
"Currently, we only have two limping vehicles and a motorcycle that carries out national coverage. The rest of the vehicles are all grounded," Mweru says, adding that re-training programmes are inadequate because they require sustained financing.
"We are constrained by the resources at our disposal. The gap between the need for training and those trained is significant. Our interventions have not been adequate enough and because of the financial shortfalls, we have not been able to fully address the various needs assessment conducted," he added.
Education, a big subject in civilian life and policy is even bigger for veterans.
A bigger percentage of the veterans had not gone beyond primary school level. Statistics availed from the Uvab data department indicate that 14.1 percent with a total of 1,759 demobilised at one point had not gone to school while a further 47.5 percent of a 5,904 group had not gone beyond primary three.
Gulu records the highest number of the uneducated and likely the biggest number of self-demobilised ex-combatants from the 22-year LRA conflict there.
One assessment shows that only 0.5 percent of veterans are graduates.
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Worse for those who are interested in retooling for the competitive life outside the barracks, (Uganda has a large unemployed labour pool) the money to go back to school is simply unavailable from personal or institutional sources.
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