16 years after he left armed rebellion, the Amuria Resident District Commissioner, Omax Omeda, has today been granted official amnesty by the Amnesty Commission.
Omeda was a former Chief Political Commissar of the defunct Uganda People's Army that fought an armed rebellion in eastern Uganda. It actively waged a war with Yoweri Museveni's government from 1988 and 1992.
At the time of the rebellion, Omeda was also the Resistance Council 3 chairperson of Atiira sub-county. After the rebellion Omeda was appointed State Minister for Works and Transport a post he held till 2001 when he was dropped from cabinet and appointed Resident District Commissioner of Gulu.
Omeda said he decided to seek for belated amnesty because he and other Uganda People's Army fighters had only been given a blanket presidential pardon. He said the pardon did not provide for immunity from prosecution.
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Omeda was given amnesty certificate and resettlement package which included 263,000 shillings a blanket, mattress and a hoe.
Raphael Makoa, the Amnesty Commissioner in-charge of Demobilization and Resettlement of Reporters, who presided over the ceremony in Mbale, urged other former combatants to use the opportunity available to normalize their relationship with government.
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Omeda is the fist Uganda People's Army commander to seek for amnesty from Uganda Amnesty Commission. Other commanders like Musa Ecweru, the State Minister for Disaster Preparedness are yet to apply for amnesty.
