POLITICS-LIBERIA: Former Rebels Surrender Weapons in Return for Money

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Abdullah Dukuly

MONROVIA, Apr 17 2004 (IPS) - After four months of uncertainty and anxiety, the 15,000-strong UN troops in war-ravaged Liberia this week resumed a six-month campaign to disarm tens of thousands of fighters. The 15-million-dollar exercise is designed to end the country’s 14-year brutal civil war.

The first five days of the campaign was concentrated on the central Liberian city of Gbarnga, formerly controlled by the biggest rebel movement – Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD).

The process started in Dec. 2003 but was stalled after militias of former president Charles Taylor rioted in the eastern suburb of the capital, Monrovia, in demand for 300 dollars as their resettlement benefits.

The peacekeepers – who numbered only 5,000 and were deployed in a single cantonment site – found themselves overwhelmed with hundreds of combatants queuing up at Camp Schefflin, 48 km east of the city, to surrender their weapons in return for money.

Now the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has constructed four cantonment sites around the country to disarm some 60,000 militias who fought most of the country’s 14-year civil war.

The war killed over 200,000 of Liberia’s 3.5 million people and displaced thousands others. The fighting also spilled over into neighbouring Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire, destabilising the sub-region.

The combatants include those who fought for Taylor and the eastern rebels of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). Taylor went into exile seven months ago after rebels reached the outskirts of Monrovia.

Taylor, a descendant of freed American slaves who ruled Liberia until 1980, was himself a rebel leader who started a campaign to overthrow the government of Samuel Doe, an indigenous Liberia, in 1989. He eventually won an election in 1997.

However, the LURD rebels – backed by Guinea – launched a new bout of war in 1999.

The Bangladeshi component of UNMIL has since been deployed in the central town of Gbarnga, the site of sporadic shooting by LURD fighters who often attack travellers on the highway and dispossess them of their belongings.

Last week, LURD fighters went on the rampage and dislodged the Bangladeshi soldiers to Taylor’s farm, about eight km from Gbarnga, sparking criticisms from the public.

The incident appeared to have infuriated Gen. Daniel Opande, the Kenyan force commander of UNMIL, who ordered his troops to “shoot to kill” any militias shooting at UNMIL. The force operates under Chapter seven mandate of the United Nations which allows the use of force to ensure peace.

At the resumption of the disarmament exercise in Gbarnga on Apr. 15, senior transitional government officials, faction leaders, UN personnel and diplomats hailed the operation as “a dream come through”.

Abou Mousa, one of the UN special representatives in Liberia, emphasised the importance of ensuring that the combatants “are well fed and meet the aspirations of the Liberian people”.

Both the transitional government and UNMIL also believe that the process would continue unhindered. “We are not expecting any problem from the former combatants. We think it will go on very well,” Moses Jarbo, director of the state-controlled National Commission on Disarmament, Demobilisation, Repatriation and Reintegration, said.

Most of the disarmed fighters appeared in Gbarnga elated at the prospects of returning to civilian life. “I’m happy now that I’ve been disarmed. I feel that I’m a civilian now,” says 18-year-old Henry Flomo. He plans to return to school.

Alphonso Jallah, 25, says, “I will return home to see my parents for the first time in four years and continue with my agricultural work”.

Vamba Sheriff, 24, says he may not go back to war if he is given the opportunity to learn a trade. “If the international community can take a good care of me and give me a sustainable skill, I will have no reason to take up the guns again,” he says.

The Bangladeshi soldiers in the central region – now in an apparent combat gear – say they will do everything to ensure that the riffles and other weapons held by the former combatants are handed over.

“We are prepared to ensure that the disarmament process is not hindered in any way,” a Bangladeshi soldier told IPS in Gbarnga.

UNMIL military trucks are transporting hundreds of armed militias from nearby towns and villages for the demobilisation exercise. Once they have surrendered their weapons, the former fighters stay at the cantonment sites for a few days before being sent home after counselling.

Margaret Novicki, UNMIL’s spokesperson, says, “We process 250 combatants a day. That is to ensure that the campaign is not overwhelmed.” The former rebels receive 75 dollars each in return for their guns.

The disarmament of the combatants – who have been terrorising civilians – is expected to allow the return of thousands of people clustered at the camps for displaced people around Monrovia and the repatriation of thousands others from neighbouring countries before elections. It will also allow the transitional government to establish civil authority throughout the country.

Last Saturday, Gyude Bryant – flanked by foreign envoys – asked Liberian civilians to forgive the former combatants. Bryant heads a broad-based transitional government that was formed under the terms of last August’s peace accord to run the country until a permanent government is elected in Oct. 2005.

Jacque Klein, UN secretary general’s special representative in Liberia, said all conditions for the resumption of the disarmament programme have been met.

He said the cooperation and support of the factions, the political leadership and military commanders was essential to the success of the disarmament campaign. “The United Nations family is here to help. Peace in Liberia is the responsibility of all the people of this nation. This programme will work if the former warring factions want it. I plead with them to help us make it a success,” he said.

For his part, U.S. ambassador John Blaney announced a big package for disarmed former rebels, including job prospects for at least 10,000 former fighters in the areas of community revitalisation and rehabilitation.

“We hope to employ 2,000 by the end of May; another 2,000 by the end of June; another 2,000 by the end of June; another 2,000 by the end of July and so forth. Eventually, we hope to have 10,000 former combatants working for us alongside thousands of others,” Blarney said.

“The fighters should stop fighting, the fighters should stop rioting, the fighters should stop looting: the fighters should realise that every time they destroy and steal something, there is less money and additional things to help them,” says Geoffrey Rudd, the head of EU in Liberia.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other UN agencies have announced plans to provide essential services such as water and sanitation and medicine for the returnees in rural Liberia.

Thompson Adebayo, a human rights advocate, is also “optimistic that the disarmament process will remain on course. The faction leaders – who have drained the nation’s resources and reduced the population to beggars – now appear ready to let their fighters disarm.”

“The rebels vandalised our towns and villages and made it difficult and even impossible for us to stay in our homes. As soon as the disarmament begins in my town – western Liberia – I will return home along with my children and other relatives to begin to pick the pieces left behind by the rebels,” he says.

UNMIL force has deployed in 13 of Liberia’s 16 counties – and is expected to dispatch peacekeepers to Gbarpolu County near the northeastern border with Sierra Leone and Maryland County near the Ivorian border in the far southeast. Troops are expected to arrive from Ethiopia to be dispatched to Maryland.