Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1999
In addition to suffering from AIDS and other diseases, most of the veterans have no skills to earn a living, Samwel Mweru, a spokesman for the Uganda Veterans Assistance Board, told journalists.
While soldiers were paid when they left the military, there are no funds for medical care or benefits for their surviving family members, Mweru said.
Between 1992 and 1995, 36,351 soldiers left the military under a program funded with a $25 million loan from the International Development Association, the soft loan arm of the World Bank.
Donors considered the size of the military, which had reached an estimated 100,000, a drain on Uganda's economy.
Uganda has one of the world's worst rates of AIDS and infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. An estimated 2 million Ugandans, out of a total population of 20 million, have been infected with HIV.
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