Fighters fail to hand in arms

2004-04-26 06:55

Terence Sesay

Monrovia - The United Nations on Sunday took its campaign to disarm Liberia's 45 000 combatants to the rebel stronghold of Tubmanburg amid new concerns that only half of the fighters are actually handing in weapons.

Tubmanburg marks the third stop on a staggered-start campaign resumed this month by the UN mission in the west African country (UNMIL) to relieve fighters from three warring factions of their arms before returning them to their communities, where they are to receive vocational training or schooling.

The combatants, most of whom have been fighting since they were children, also receive a $300 stipend in two payments.

It is the second chance for the $50m process.

Poor planning and a shortage of troops created a disaster for the December 7 launch at a lone cantonment site near the capital. Thousands of fighters swarmed the Schieffelin barracks demanding cash and filled the streets of Monrovia for three days when the money was not forthcoming. Twelve people were reported killed in the riots.

UNMIL disarmed 12 000 fighters in the first week but then suspended the campaign, first until January and then until April 15, when it resumed in Gbarnga, another stronghold of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD).

Nearly 2 700 fighters in Gbarnga have since been admitted to the cantonment site, operated by a battalion of Pakistani peacekeepers. They will stay there for seven days before returning to civilian life and a choice of a trade or an education in what UNMIL spokesperson Margaret Novicki has called a "long-term" commitment by the UN.

Thanks to a five-month public awareness blitz of radio ads, posters and a travelling song-and-dance revue, the process also started smoothly five days later in Buchanan, the port stronghold of the LURD offshoot Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), which is known to have been funded by eastern neighbour Ivory Coast.

And while no riots have disturbed the disarmament since April 20 of 1 241 MODEL troops, journalists who attended the opening day of the process noted that roughly half of the fighters who showed up came empty-handed.

UNMIL officials corroborated this, the UN news agency IRIN reported on Wednesday, saying that while 1 789 former fighters had been processed by that point, peacekeepers had collected only 782 weapons, some of which were non-serviceable.

Unarmed fighters say their weapons had been seized by their commanders, who have since hidden them. Others hint that the guns could been spirited into neighbours Ivory Coast or Sierra Leone, both under UN mandate, or Guinea, which also has the potential to destabilize.

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo is widely believed to have armed disgruntled ex-LURD rebels in their fight against Taylor's armies in Liberia's southeast in exchange for their help in quashing rebels who rose to oust him in September 2002 and who remain in control of the north and west.

Peacekeepers donned UN blue berets in Ivory Coast on April 4, but 19 months of political battles have prevented the launch of its disarmament process, which will offer fighters twice as much money to hand over a weapon as in Liberia.

Both UNMIL and Liberian officials have acknowledged the concerns of the fighters as well as the implications for the peace process if combatants still have easy access to weapons.

UN special envoy to Liberia, Jacques Klein, told a meeting of UN officials in February in Dakar that there were roughly three weapons for every combatant in Liberia, a country of 3.3 million people.

"We can't rely solely on the ongoing disarmament program for a gun-free Liberia," said pro-democracy activist Tobias Nagbe.

"UNMIL will have to insitute cordon and search operations to ensure that guns are taken from our midst."

- AFP