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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Special report on the disarmament, demobilisation, reintegration of ex-fighters
BANGUI, 8 December 2003 (IRIN) - //This is the first in a series of five special reports on the demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) of former rebel fighters in the Great Lakes region. The second report, on Burundi's DDR process, will be published on Monday, 15 December on www.irinnews.org //
After years of civil strife, the Central African Republic (CAR) has, since March 2003, lived through a period of relative calm. This has enabled the transitional government of Francois Bozize to plan a phased demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) process targeting ex-rebel fighters and former government soldiers.
The past turmoil gave rise to a proliferation of weapons and men willing to use them to settle scores. When Bozize, a former armed forces chief of staff, seized power from President Ange-Felix Patasse on 15 March after a six-month rebellion, he vowed to disarm and demobilise all armed fighters before the start of the democratic electoral process in mid-2004.
That task fell to the Chadian soldiers, who arrived in the country after Bozize's coup to help him restore calm, and those of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC), who initially made a bold attempt to rid the capital, Bangui, of weapons held by Bozize's former fighters (also called "liberators") and members of the CAR army.
However, many "liberators" escaped the dragnet, especially those of Chadian origin. They then joined bandits and cattle raiders operating in the remote north. In recent weeks, the incidence of armed robbery and cattle raiding by these elements, who are armed with modern weapons, has risen sharply. Moreover, pro-Patasse militiamen are also thought still to be armed.
CEMAC troops have been unable to neutralise these bands, because rain-battered roads and broken bridges have made it impossible for them to deploy. Instead, being more adapted to the rough terrain than regular troops, the bandits have taken the fight to the CEMAC troops. In June, for example, a CEMAC unit was ambushed in the eastern town of Bambari, 384 km north of Bangui.
In a memorandum to a visiting UN delegation in June, the government said that the DDR process would be implemented in three phases, these being (1) informing and educating the former fighters about disarmament, (2) voluntary disarmament and (3) forcible recovery of firearms and legal action against recalcitrant bearers of illegal weapons.
The government noted in this respect that it would prefer voluntary disarmament, but was also willing to use force. It added that since donors had not responded with funds for the DDR project, the three phases were being implemented as expediency demanded and not necessarily in three distinct phases.
WEAPONS IN CIRCULATION
By implication, the disarmament of armed groups will also need to be extended to civilians in a country awash with pistols, automatic and semiautomatic rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Gen Xavier Yangongo, who chaired the Defence and Security Commission at national reconciliation talks held in September and October, told IRIN on 4 October that about 50,000 firearms were being illegally held in the country, of which 30,000 were in Bangui. The committee was formed in accordance with recommendations made by the 350 delegates who attended the month-long talks.
Yangongo said that some of the weapons being held illegally had been stolen from army barracks during the May 2001 mutiny of former President Andre Kolingba and Bozize's armed rebellion in November the same year. Other weapons, he said, had been brought into the country from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), southern Sudan and southern Chad, which were also in the throes of armed rebellion at the time.
Most of these weapons are now in the hands of the pro-Patasse militiamen, bandits and cattle herders. Equally disturbing is the fact that many firearms are in the hands of civilians. Referring to this during the national reconciliation talks on 14 October, Bozize said that the problem of weapons hidden in homes, farmlands and wells would also have to be tackled.
A day after that statement, security forces seized 19 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,957 rounds of ammunition in the Sambo neighbourhood of Bangui, all of which had been hidden in casks of palm oil loaded on a truck ready to be moved to the north.
DEMOBILISATION
After the ex-combatants are disarmed, they will have to be demobilised. On 26 September, Prime Minister Abel Goumba announced the setting up of an inter-ministerial committee, with which CEMAC would work to identify all of Bozize's former fighters for either demobilisation or integration into the army.
Four days later, the secretary of state for army reform and disarmament, Col Jules Wande, told a visiting World Bank-EC delegation that 6,500 former fighters and militiamen remained to be disarmed. These included Bozize's former fighters, former army mutineers and pro-Patasse northern militia groups going by the names of Karaco, Saroui and Balawa.
Under Wande's plan, the demobilisation of sick and handicapped fighters began on 8 October. As of 1 January 2004, the defence ministry would begin retiring those willing to engage in civilian occupations. Finally, a new army recruitment drive targeting all the nation's many ethnic groups would begin in the second half of 2004.
However, the government, which employs 7,617 soldiers, gendarmes and policemen, has not yet revealed the number of the fighters it is willing to absorb into security and defence services. The government has appealed for donor funds to help it accomplish this task.
The need to disarm and demobilise former fighters is, perhaps, self-evident. Less obvious is where the money for the process will come from. In its memorandum to a visiting UN delegation, the government said the operation would cost at least 650 million francs CFA (US $1.83 million). So far, no donor has said it is prepared to support the process, which is to be implemented jointly with the CEMAC force and French troops stationed in the CAR.
REINTEGRATION
Once demobilised, former fighters must be eased back into the military or civilian life. Some of Bozize's 1,000 men have been disarmed and are now being trained in local and Chadian military camps. In August, 362 of them were integrated into the army after two months of basic training.
But the slow pace of the process has angered some fighters, 100 of whom blocked traffic in a north Bangui suburb for hours on 18 October. "We want the General [Bozize] to honour his promise of sending us to training centres before our integration," one of the strikers, who requested anonymity, told IRIN.
During his rebellion, Bozize recruited heavily among children aged 15 to 16 years. The recruits received no military training and displayed a total lack of discipline, which was illustrated by a spate of looting and human rights abuses that they perpetrated just after the coup.
More successful has been the reintegration of at least 800 former CAR soldiers, most of them members of Kolingba's Yakoma ethnic group. They had fled with him in June 2001 after he failed to overthrow Patasse. Most of them had also taken part in the 1996-97 mutinies.
But following the general amnesty granted to all participants in the May coup, the government body in charge of overseeing the repatriation of refugees, the Commission Nationale d'Accueil des Rapatries (CNAR) asked for them to be allowed to return, along with other refugees. On 1 August, 275 former soldiers returned from Camp Bokilio, in northwestern DRC, with the help of the UN Mission in the DRC and the UN mission the CAR, BONUCA.
Many more had previously rejoined Bozize's rebellion or returned home spontaneously after his victory over Patasse. A presidential decree setting up the CNAR in May had indicated that the returning soldiers would be integrated into the army after a case-by-case examination.
The integration of former mutineers was not as rapid. Nicolas Tiangaye, chairman of the National Transitional Council, the nation's legislative body, called on 4 September for the integration of returnees in the army or public service to be speeded up. He said they needed to regain "their social and professional stability".
"I spent three months before integration into the public service," Anicet Sollet, an army major who led the November 1997 mutiny, told IRIN. Bozize appointed him in August as officer in charge of special duties at the Ministry of Territorial Administration.
Sollet was among those sentenced to death in absentia for his role in the May 2001 coup. He said the integration of former mutineers was being delayed by "administrative hardships" motivated by ethnic considerations.
Inter-ministerial teams have been set up to deal with the integration of former mutineers and Bozize fighters into the army or public service. These actions are aimed at averting frustration among these elements, thereby reducing the risk of another rebellion.
A former Bozize fighter, Eric Mbelenga, 17, said he was integrated into the army on 11 October, promoted to sergeant and awarded a monthly wage of 67,999 francs CFA. Still, even among those reintegrated, such as Cpl Michel Koyessa, a former mutineer who took part in Kolingba's coup, frustration remains. He said none of the returnees had been appointed to senior army ranks and that former mutineers were still very suspicious of the government's real intentions. Moreover, he said, the government had failed to pay salaries, thereby placing returning families in precarious situations.
The minister for communications in charge of the reconciliation process, Col Parfait Mbaye, who is also the CNAR deputy chairman, told IRIN on 22 October that 60 percent of the 800 former mutineers had been integrated either into the army or the public service. He said only the cases of those who had returned from Bokilio in August were still under review. But help was expected from the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
UN SUPPORTS VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR DISARMED CIVILIANS
The UNDP, through the country's National Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reinsertion Programme (Programme National de Desarmement, Demobilisation et de Reinsertion, PNDR), started a vocational training programme in August for 220 youths who had voluntarily surrendered their weapons.
The head of the PNDR, Harouna Dan Malam, told IRIN that from 15 June 2002 to 15 March 2003, the body had recovered 209 small arms; three machine guns, 134,000 rounds of ammunition, 1,361 grenades, 27 mortar bombs, 54 rockets and one antipersonnel mine - all of which were burnt on 25 July.
Harouna said the PNDR, whose authority is limited to dealing with civilians holding illegal weapons, had set aside 35 million francs CFA ($58,300) for training the 220 youths as carpenters, electricians, mechanics and tailors, and in other trades. He said the PNDR had another $110,000 to buy tools for each trainee when the four-month courses ended in December. Each trainee would receive tools and equipment worth $500, enabling him to start a new business.
"We have formed a cooperative which will open a garage at the end of the training", Wilmer Nzia, 34, a former Patasse rebel fighter, told IRIN. Like 52 others, Nzia has been training as an auto mechanic since August at Bangui's Institut Moderne des Metiers Specialises.
The institute's chairman, Gyslain Zangas, told IRIN that the school was also offering training for electricians, as well as training in electronics, civil engineering and welding.
Former fighter Mahamat Asseyanga-Ndouba, a 40-year-old father of 10 who was training as an electrician said: "With my training, I will open a workshop and be able to feed my family."
Many other vocational training centres have received ex-fighters who will be given certificates of competency at the end of their instruction in December. "They will be able to earn money, especially if they form associations and open workshops," Zangas said.
EXTENSION OF VOCATIONAL TRAINING UNDER CONSIDERATION
Consultations between the government and its partners, including the World Bank and the EC, are under way with a view to integrating the PNDR into a Multi-country Demobilisation and Reinsertion Programme (MDRP) encompassing seven central African states: Angola, Burundi, the CAR, Republic of the Congo, the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.
[Ends]
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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