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Thursday, June 27, 2002 - Web posted at 2:26:16 pm GMT

KAMPALA - The World Bank and international donors are to provide funds next year to demobilise and reintegrate soldiers in nine African countries of the Great Lakes region, Ugandan officials said here yesterday.

"The Ugandan government is working out the numbers of its soldiers to be demobilised and this will be ready later this year," Uganda Veteran Assistance Board (UVAB) Executive Secretary General Emilio Mondo said.

But the independent Monitor newspaper reported yesterday that up to 20 000 Ugandan soldiers would be demobilised from Uganda's 45 000-strong force during the exercise.

"At a meeting in Paris in mid-April, the World Bank and the donor community committed themselves to help nine African countries fund demobilisation and reintegration programme for the greater Great Lakes region," Mondo told AFP by telephone.

He said the countries affected by the exercise are Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Congo Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

"The details of funding and numbers involved will be worked out," he said, adding that the axing would take place over next year, although countries ready to start could do so later this year.

Army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza confirmed the exercise, but said that those to be affected are terminally ill, drunkards, the aged and undisciplined, as well as those who asking for voluntary retirement.

In the early 1990s, Uganda reduced its 100 000-strong force by half on the insistence of the donor community. - Nampa-AFP

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