Ex-fighters struggle in Liberia

2005-10-06 11:35

Monrovia - It seems strangely fitting that about 1 500 former child soldiers loyal to Charles Taylor have taken up residence in the dank bowels of a building known as the Titanic, blackened by neglect and listing in the soft earth of Liberia's rain-soaked capital.

Fitting perhaps because it was they, many of them from the time they should have been starting secondary school, who were responsible for sinking Monrovia into successive civil wars that ravaged the west African nation.

"I took up arms when I was 12, when Charles Taylor came to Nimba county (north) to recruit us to join his war against the government," said 26-year-old George Bull, known as "Power" during his time as a member of the Jungle Fire militia and now a husband and father of two young girls.

"Twelve years old. If I had stayed in school then, who knows? I could now be in university, or working in computers. Instead I am in tenth grade, and I am struggling."

In the two years since a peace pact was signed to bring an end to the rebel war against then-president Taylor, 103 000 boys and girls - now men and women - like Bull have been disarmed in a $220m process run by the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

And if the soldiers, rebels and militants have renounced war and embraced peace like the rest of their war-weary nation, they remain close to each other, and their former commanders, awaiting the promise of a rebuilt economy and a transition to true democracy that they hope elections set for October 11 will provide.

That closeness has evoked fears, particularly since the rehabilitation and reintegration phase of the UN process has not yet been completed, of a reprise of fighting at home or, worse still, the stealth crossing of Liberia's porous borders by ex-combatants to join other conflicts such as one simmering to the east in Ivory Coast.

Bull himself, like many of the squatters in the Titanic, is of two minds about returning to the battlefield - wanting desperately to lead an honest life but knowing that as an unskilled and partially educated Liberian, he is of more use in arms than in an office.

"I cannot promise that if someone comes to me and says 'take arms and go over the border' that I will not, if I get a contract that will help me take care of my family."

According to Charles Achodo, disarmament programme and policy adviser for the UN Development Program, 38 000 ex-combatants have received reintegration benefits that provide schooling or vocational training, with another 33 000 enrolled in similar projects courtesy of UN development partners.

That leaves roughly 26 000 people still waiting for assistance, which Achodo said would be forthcoming.

"The DDRR (disarmament and reintegration) process was supposed to create space so that the government could function, so that the economy could grow, that the private sector could become engaged and for Liberia to become more attractive to foreign investment," he said in an interview on Wednesday.

"The rest, ultimately, is up to Liberia itself. We are not here to provide everything but to help get the country on track so it can provide for itself."

- AFP