Uganda Signs Peace Accord With Rebels : Creation of Combined New Army Major Hurdle to Nation’s Stabilization

Top leaders of Uganda’s military government and the rebel National Resistance Army signed a long-awaited peace agreement in neighboring Kenya on Tuesday and declared a cease-fire in their four-year-old war.

The pact was signed amid jubilation--but also caution--by Uganda’s head of state, Gen. Tito Okello; by rebel leader Yoweri Museveni, and by Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, who mediated 3 1/2 months of frequently sidetracked talks.

The agreement attempts to make up for the East African nation’s bloody recent past. It called for a return to democracy through free elections “as soon as possible,” a new constitution, the release of political prisoners and the prosecution of past human rights violators--a formidable task in a country where perhaps 1 million people were killed during the regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote.

It also provided for a combined army drawn from government troops and from Museveni’s rebels, and it is here that Western diplomats believe the carefully negotiated accord is most precarious. Envoys reached by telephone in Kampala noted that each side is to carry out the disarmament process essentially by itself, with only limited international supervision from an “observer-monitor force” with members from Kenya, Tanzania, Canada and Britain.

Before the force arrives, a 51-man reconnaissance team is to come to Uganda, identify the positions of all the combatants and determine how big the observer force needs to be. It was not clear Tuesday what country would provide that reconnaissance team.

The new combined army is to be small--composed of only 3,750 members of the current national army and 3,500 rebel fighters. More than 16,000 army soldiers and an estimated 11,500 guerrillas will be out of work. Troops are to be withdrawn from the capital of Kampala.

Museveni, a defense minister under Amin, had fought a long bush war against Obote, only to see himself excluded from power when Obote was toppled in July. Now, Museveni said, he has agreed to accept the post of vice chairman of the military council.

On Tuesday, he pledged that his comparatively well-disciplined troops “will be put at the disposal of anybody interested in peace in Uganda.” His men had soundly defeated ill-disciplined government troops in a number of battles and taken control of a third of the country.

But he also said that his troops would be a serious adversary to anyone who sought trouble.

And Museveni pointedly referred to the part of the agreement calling for punishment of all who committed atrocities while serving in the army, in the dreaded State Research Bureau or in other police forces under Amin.

“We are not going to rest until those who are responsible for such a massive hemorrhage of the lives of our people are brought to book,” he said. On the restoration of human rights, he declared, “The rulers are expendable but the people always stay.”

Under the agreement, the National Resistance Army will come close to sharing power equally with Okello’s military leadership, getting seven ruling council seats with the generals holding eight. Lesser opposition groups will occupy the remaining five places on the 20-member council.

Splendor and Doubt

When Okello returned to Kampala late Tuesday, he was greeted with traditional and modern African splendor. Clad in a scarlet tunic covered with medals and gold braid, he carried a ceremonial sword belted to his waist.

Okello rode into town in an open black Mercedes, a staple of wealthy Africans, and was greeted by about 6,000 people chanting “We want peace! We want peace!” Freshly cut banana trees were stuck in the ground along the 20 miles of road between Entebbe Airport and the capital. Banana fronds, a symbol of welcome, decorated storefronts.

But there was little singing and dancing among the many thousands of people who listened to the ceremony by radio, reflecting deep concern, local experts said, over whether the pact would be fully implemented.