President Museveni, and ex-rebel leader - Major General Ali Bamuze, survey some of the thousands of weapons turned in by the UNRF II as part of their peace agreement with the Ugandan government, brokered by IAL-Uganda's Deputy Chairman, Ahmed Doka.

Major General Ali Bamuze shows President Museveni, Prime Minister - Apolo Nsibambi, Deputy Prime Minister, Brigadier Moses Ali and others, some of the armaments they turned in as part of the peace deal.

Some of the 135 child soldiers (who were kidnapped as children) being handed over to UNICEF as part of the peace deal.

HOW THE INSTITUTE HELPED 2600 REBELS
TRADE THEIR "SWORDS" (GUNS) FOR PLOUGHSHARES

The Institute of Advanced Leadership specialise in trainings that can end long-running conflicts. One of our star pupils is our own Deputy Chairman (for Uganda), Mr Ahmed Doka.

Following our training on mediation, Mr Doka was very excited to put the teachings into action. At the time he was the Deputy Resident District Commissioner for Kampala (Uganda's capital). {A Resident District Commissioner (R.D.C.) is the President's representative in a district. He's a little like a Governor, and is responsible for the army, police and many other services in the region (averaging about 500,000 people.)}

At first he tried using the skills, approach and attitude we taught with some staff members who had been in conflict for many years. After his mediation they walked out hand in hand. Buoyed with this success, Mr Doka resolved to apply the teachings as much as he could.

Shortly after this he was promoted to Resident District Commissioner for Yumbe - a district bordering on Sudan, and which housed thousands of UNRF11 rebels.

Mr Doka met the rebels to see if they were willing to negotiate. As he was respectful and appreciative of them, they were respectful and appreciative of him. They shared their concerns about the Ugandan government, and looked at a range of options that might lead towards their ending their hostilities towards the government (and the UN, and local civilians).

After arranging meetings between President Museveni and the rebels, arranging free land for the rebels to farm (helping to turn "swords" into ploughshares), organising work for many rebels as members of the official Ugandan arms, and a couple of years of working together to develop a good relationship, the rebels agreed to turn in their guns, and to come back to mainstream society.