POLITICS-SIERRA LEONE: Rebels to Turn in Weapons by Month’s End

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Nov 14 2001 (IPS) - The process of disarming Sierra Leone’s factional combatants will be completed by Nov 30, according to a UN official.

“The way I see things…we may well be on course. By the end of the month (November) we would have completed disarmament,” says Major Mohammed Yerima of the UN contingent in Sierra Leone.

While the disarmament process is going on around the country, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) has embarked on the simultaneous destruction of weapons and their conversion to plough shares.

UNAMSIL spokesperson Margaret Novicki says “thousands of weapons” collected would be destroyed with the aim of making the country weapon-free.

In the eastern district of Kenema, which is the stronghold of pro-government militia forces, plans are well underway to carry out disarmament of former fighters there. The national public relations officer for the militia forces, Charles Moiwo, has warned his armed supporters to give up their guns or face the full force of the law.

According to the National committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR), “a number of the country’s twelve district have completed disarmament”, making way for the return of civilians and rehabilitation of the destroyed towns and villages.

NCDDR Executive Secretary Francis Kaikai says “the process is moving on a fast track”.

“The mood for peace in the country is very much around. Even the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) which seemed too reluctant to disarm is now co-operating with the programme,” he says.

So far, Koinadugu and Bombali districts in the north have been completely disarmed as well as Moyamba and Bo districts in the south. The Western area, including the country’s capital Freetown, completed its disarmament over the weekend.

Some 45,000 ex-combatants who fought during the country’s decade-long civil war are expected to disarm and indications are that three-fourths of that number may have given up their guns.

What appears quite surprising is the fact that RUF rebels would disarm and give-up their headquarter town of Makeni in the north, as well as the strategic diamond-rich district of kono in the east. After all, the war in Sierra Leone has been so much about a battle for control of the country’s resources.

It seems that gradually, governmental authority is being restored to both Kono and Makeni with the police moving in to establish law and order. The guns also have fallen silent in all region of the country and the rebels appear quite determined to enter the political race.

RUF spokesperson Gibril Massaquoi told IPS that as far as the RUF was concerned “the war was over”. He added that what is of paramount concern to the rebel group is its transformation into a political party ahead of next year’s general and presidential elections.

The reason for the rebels’ compliance with the disarmament programme, which they had often stalled, is not immediately clear, but analysts believe pressure from the British forces in Sierra Leone may have had influence on the recalcitrant rebels.

It is also because of the hitherto slow pace of the disarmament and demobilisation programme that parliament kept extending the expired mandate of President Ahmed Tijan Kabba’s government by six months intervals.

Elections, which are scheduled to take place in May next year may go ahead only after the completion of the disarmament programme and the repatriation of the refugees as well as internally displaced persons.

And with all sides renouncing violence and focusing more on the political process, it is the hope of the majority of Sierra Leoneans to see this brutal chapter put behind them.