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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
COTE D IVOIRE: Disarmament suspended as militia fail to turn in arms
ABIDJAN, 4 Aug 2006 (IRIN) - A scheme to disarm pro-government militia in war-divided Cote d’Ivoire was suspended on Friday when fighters signed on to the plan but failed to hand in enough weapons, the United Nations peacekeeping mission said.
The UN mission, ONUCI, said in a statement that 930 fighters in the government-run west of Cote d'Ivoire had disarmed but that only 90 weapons had been turned over, as well as 5,107 rounds of ammuniation.
The eight-day disarmament programme, already delayed by disagreement over the number of combatants involved, “has been suspended until the militia leaders organise themselves better so that more weapons will be handed in,” the head of the UN mission’s disarmament department Jean-Luc Stalon told IRIN.
“They’ll have to hand in more weapons,” he said. “If we go on like this the ratio between demobilised fighters and weapons will be too low.”
Earlier, the chairman of the government disarmament programme PNDDR, General Gaston Ouassenan Kone, said 48 women were among 931 militia fighters to disarm.
The operation is a key demand of rebels in control of the northern half of the country, who are refusing to turn in their guns until militias in the west have disarmed. According to a UN-backed peace plan, 2,000 fighters based in the west must be disarmed by 7 August.
But militia leaders in the volatile western town of Guiglo, which is a stronghold of the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party, say they are unhappy with the number of fighters taken into account by the government.
Claiming nearly 11,000 fighters under their command, the leaders insist the disarmament programme should be expanded to at least 5,000 fighters.
"There are people who claim they have fought with us but never have, and then there are thousands of fighters who are not in the programme," said Octave Yahi, leader of the Union for the Resistance of the Grand West (UPRGO) militia group.
"Obviously, we are going to have a lot of discontented people," he told IRIN.
A failed coup in September 2002 sparked several months of civil war and eventually split Cote d'Ivoire between a rebel-held north and government-run south. In the west, the loyalist army fought back the rebels with the help of several thousand militias, including an unknown number of Liberian nationals.
Each listed militia fighter will receive a first payment of 125,000 CFA [US$ 240] of a grand total of 499,500 CFA [US $970]. Some of the weapons are collected by their leaders and handed over in stacks.
Meanwhile, shops and businesses in the central cocoa-growing town of Daloa closed early Thursday following clashes between pro-government militia and supporters of the opposition.
A group of minivan drivers ransacked a local radio station occupied by militia youth after a militia member had attacked an opposition youth with a cutlass. After several hours, security forces intervened to disperse the protest.
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[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
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