SUMMARY
UPA (Uganda People’s Army) was a Ugandan rebel group that was involved in the conflict against the regime of Yoweri Museveni in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Museveni’s seizure of power in January 1986 came after a five-year long bloody conflict, first against the regime of Milton Obote (1981 – July 1985) and then against a military junta under Tito Okello, that had ousted Obote in a coup. The emergence of UPA thus took place in the context of a victorious rebel group turned government army – NRA – attempting to gain full control over Uganda. Since the country had seen a longstanding pattern of political elites manipulating ethnic and regional differences in order to legitimate their claim to power, the army foresaw challenges as it entered territory that was associated with previous regimes. In Uganda’s northern Acholiland, the NRA army experienced resistance from remnants of Okello’s army, now reconstituted as UPDA. In contrast, when they entered Teso district in eastern Uganda, most sources report that the local population initially welcomed them, having grown tired of the lawlessness in the wake of the ousting of Obote. However, relations quickly soured. While Milton Obote was a Langi, he and his party UPC (Uganda People’s Congress) had enjoyed large popular support among the Iteso of neighboring Teso region, and as such, the new national army viewed the region as a potential staging ground for new rebel groups and began acting accordingly. When in power, Obote had set up a paramilitary Special Force, largely made up of Iteso people, and Museveni’s army quickly began searching for its fighters, as well as for people who had worked in the military in general. There were indiscriminate arrests and rumors of torture and killings. In addition to this, militias that had been set up to protect Teso from cattle raiding from neighboring Karamoja region were disbanded by Museveni’s new government, leaving Teso completely unprotected. Subsequently, a wave of raids commenced. All of this served to create a general sense of marginalization and hostility towards the new regime, and it was in this context that UPA emerged.
UPA was formed during the first half of 1987, but there are different versions as to how the group came about. Some sources stress the agency of the former Special Force fighters, who were fleeing from the new army. They were able to reach out to the youths of the region and successfully recruited many fighters to the new group. Another version of events was that it was exiled pro-Obote politicians that saw the potential of the anti-Museveni feelings in Teso, and decided to use the situation for their own political objectives. They subsequently began touring the region and eventually brought about the creation of UPA. Most likely, it was the combination of these two processes that led to the official launch of the group in May 1987. At that time, aside from announcing its presence, UPA also stated that its aim was the overthrow of Museveni’s regime.
Francis Eregu, commonly called “Hitler”, was the overall military commander of UPA, and the First Commander of the Rebel High Command, the highest authority in the group. He had previously been a prominent Officer in Obote’s Special Force. Sam Otai, who had earlier fought in Obote's army, became the Rebel High Command’s Second Commander. At the outset, the group consisted of several hundred fighters, and this number grew to roughly 2000 as the years passed. The fighters were loosely organized into eight brigades covering different portions of the Teso region. Eregu himself headed the so-called Special Brigade, which was mainly active in Soroti district in the southern part of Teso. Two other important brigades were the Ostrich brigade under Charles “Jesus” Opirot, active in Usuk area, northeast of Soroti, and the Wild Boys Brigade under Opus Okello, in Kumi district, bordering Soroti to the east. While UPA had a political wing, UPF (Uganda People’s Front), led by Peter Otai, the former Minister of State for Defence in Obotes government, and Sam Otai’s uncle, the link between the two was tenuous at best. UCDP’s general coding rule is to use the name of the political organization, but due to the fact that UPF wielded no influence over UPA, this rule cannot be applied in this case.
As indicated above, it was the Iteso ethnic group that formed the basis of UPA. At the time of UPA’s insurgency, the Iteso made up around six percent of Uganda’s population, and the group was and remains concentrated in the ethnically homogenous Teso region. Initially, UPA and its cause enjoyed substantial support among the Iteso population. At the height of its insurgency, UPA was able to penetrate large parts of Iteso society; each village was to assign ten young men and boys – so-called agwayo – who would serve as information carriers and potential activists if violence came into the area. However, as the conflict dragged on, popular support decreased.
At the time of UPA’s insurgency, the Ugandan regime was challenged by no less than four other rebel groups (UPDA, HSM, Lord’s Army and UHSA, which later changed its name to LRA), all based in the northern Acholi region. While the government was concerned that the Acholi and Teso rebels would join forces and thus pose a much greater challenge to the regime, only little coordination and cooperation materialized. There were reports of meetings between the Teso Rebel High Command and the leadership of both HSM and UHSA and by 1991 the latter and UPA were briefly known as the Union for Democracy, as they attempted to join forces. The two groups fought a few joint battles and UHSA delivered some arms to the Teso rebels before the alliance dissolved after a falling out between UHSA-leader Joseph Kony and Eregu over resources. Another version of this was that the UPA Rebel High Command chose to end the cooperation since Kony’s group was too violent and cruel to its own people. As for support from abroad, this was pursued by the political wing, but with no substantial results. Museveni accused Kenya of allowing UPA to have rear bases on its territory, but this was vehemently denied by the Kenyan government.
UPA suffered a setback already one year into the conflict, as Charles “Jesus” Opirot and his Ostrich Brigade, agreed to lay down its arms. Continued internal feuding as well as military setbacks further weakened the group as the years passed. In late April 1992, Eregu and some 30 men fled to Kenya, leaving only a handful of fighters in Teso. While they carried on UPA’s struggle for a little while longer, the group was now seriously depleted. In March 1994, the last grouping still active – the so-called “last of the Mohicans” group – met its Waterloo in a shootout with the army in Kumi district; the leader of the group, Abwongoto, was killed and his second in command, James Peter Olupot surrendered.
