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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: UN hopes to start demobilisation in early December
MONROVIA, 4 November 2003 (IRIN) - The United Nations plans to start demobilising and disarming the estimated 38,000 former combatants in Liberia's civil war in early December, with the aim of completing the process in April next year, Raul Carrera, a senior official of the UN demobilisation team, said on Tuesday.
A draft UN planning document distributed to the media last week suggested that demolibilisation would only start in mid-January.
However, Carrera told IRIN in an interview that the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was now aiming to open the first cantonment centre for troops of the army of former president Charles Taylor on the outskirts of the capital Monrovia on December 7.
A separate cantonment centre for fighters of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) would be opened at Tubmanburg, 60 km northwest of Monrovia, a few days later, he added. A third cantonment centre for fighters of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) would be established in Buchanan, a port city 120 km southeast of the capital.
"Our plans are to open the first cantonment sites starting early December. We have established December 7 as the date for at least the first cantonment site," Carrera said.
The demobilisation officer said that by January 2004, UNMIL aimed to open a total of four cantonment sites, where up to 1,000 fighters at a time would surrender their weapons and undergo a three-week screening process. They would then be discharged and would receive an undisclosed sum of money. The former combatants would then be passed on to other UN agencies which would supervise their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
By April, when the disarmament programme is due to enter its final phase, up to 10 cantonment sites would be opened across the country, he added.
Carrera said the first site to be established for soldiers and militiamen of former president Taylor would probably be at Shecfflin military barracks on the road from Monrovia to Roberts international airport, although an alternative site at Omega Tower, in the eastern suburb of Paynesville was also under consideration. He noted that most of the buildings at Shecfflin were already in reasonable condition and that only minimal work would be needed to rehabilitate the living quarters there to a suitable standard.
It would probably take longer to provide adequate accommodation for 1,000 soldiers at Tubmanburg and Buchanan, where there appeared to be less infrastructure in place, he added.
The disarmament and demobilisation process will be supervised by UNMIL troops and will get under way well before UNMIL reaches its full strength of 15,000 men. UNMIL spokeswoman Margaret Novicki said subject to governments providing the troops requested, the force would become fully manned in March next year.
There are currently about 5,000 UN peacekeepers in Liberia, most of whom are deployed in and around Monrovia. Carrera and Novicki declined to say how many blue helmets there would have to be on the ground before demobilisation could start. However, UN sources said a further 2,000 to 3,000 more were expected to arrive over the coming month or so.
Carrera stressed that all Liberians disarmed would be closely screened to ensure that they were genuine combatants, not simply civilians who had picked up a gun and wanted to take advantage of the benefits offered to civilians in the US $50 million disarmament, demobilisation, rehabilitation and reintegration programme.
Those handing in weapons would have to demonstrate that they actually knew how to use them, he stressed. Once they had been accepted as genuine combatants, they would be questioned to obtain personal and social information and would receive a medical check-up. Those that required it, would also receive psychological therapy.
"At the end of the three weeks they will get some money - I don't want to say how much - and then they will move on to start reintegration activities," said Carrera, who previously helped to organise disarmament programmes in Bosnia and Angola.
Children, women and the disabled would receive the greatest assistance to adapt to normal civilian life, he added.
Carrera said no-one would knew for sure how many combatants from Liberia's 14-year civil war would come forward with their guns, but UNMIL estimated there were 38,000 still roaming the country, more than two months after the signing of the 18 August peace agreement.
The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) of former president Taylor, who stepped down and went into exile in Nigeria a week before the peace agreement was signed, was estimated to number 10,000 men. LURD, which took up arms against Taylor in 1999, was estimated to have 8,000 adult fighters and MODEL, which appeared on the scene in March this year, was reckoned to have 5,000.
Carrera said that in addition, UNMIL estimated there were 8,000 child soldiers employed by the three warring parties. This figure is considerably lower than some of the estimates given recently by other UN agencies. Some have guessed that up to 70 percent of all Liberian combatants could be under the age of 18.
Carrera said there were an estimated 1,000 women bearing arms, 1,000 disabled fighters and some 5,000 armed men who belonged to other rebel movements that had been active in earlier stages of Liberia's civil war.
UN officials said full details of the programme to rehabilitate former combatants and return them to civil life were still being worked out, but judging by the experience of neighbouring Sierra Leone, it would take years rather than months to provide them with the necessary education and skills training to enable them to earn a decent living from honest work and avoid the temptation of resorting to violence to earn easy money.
None expect all the guns which have flooded into Liberia in recent years to be handed in, so the success of the demobilisation programme will be closely linked to efforts to turn Liberia into a prosperous country ruled by consensus. One security expert said he would consider it a good result if just half the arms currently in circulation were handed in.
Carrera noted that although the disarmament programme had not yet formally started, UNMIL had already collected 2,842 weapons, mainly from government fighters.
There is also a fear that many of Liberia's gunmen will simply choose to cross into neighbouring Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire to foment trouble there. Diplomats say that many MODEL fighters were previously members of Liberian militia units that fought for President Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire's civil war.
LURD and pro-Taylor fighters might meanwhile be tempted to meddle in Guinea, where diplomats and relief workers say the government of ailing President Lansana Conte looks increasingly fragile.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Governance
[ENDS]
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