LIBERIA: Former fighters in second day of riots, UNMIL offers initial payment

Photo: IRIN

MONROVIA, 9 December 2003 (IRIN) - Hundreds of former Liberian government fighters angry that they were not given cash in exchange for guns at the start of disarmament, rioted for the second day in the capital Monrovia, firing sporadically into the air and setting off panic across the eastern suburbs of Paynesville and Sinkor. The shooting, which went on throughout Monday night, cooled down on Tuesday afternoon after the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) announced it would provide an immediate initial cash payment of US $75 to each fighter who handed in a gun. Rampaging fighters hijacked vehicles and drove precariously around the suburbs shooting into the air. Several vehicles, including the official vehicle of the Nigerian ambassador to Liberia, were smashed. At the ELWA junction in Paynesville, a cross-roads intersection that links Monrovia to the cantonment site Camp Scheifflein, 56 km to the southeast, the fighters blocked traffic and stopped commercial vehicles. Shops and other businesses closed down. With the sound of gunfire reverberating across the Monrovia's suburbs, the fighters, most of then young men, chanted demands for money in exchange for their weapons. A convoy of foreign journalists enroute to the Scheifflein cantonment site had to turn back to town after the rioting fighters hit the windshield of a commercial vehicle that was moving along side the convoy. Defense Minister Daniel Chea said frantic efforts were being made by UNMIL in close collaboration with senior government officers and military commanders to get the fighters off the streets. "We think that the fighters were not sensitized enough on the disarmament programme and that is the reason they are behaving as such. They had high hopes of receiving cash immediately after handing in their guns and ammunition," Chea told reporters. UNMIL said the disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration programme (DDRRP) of the former fighters, which started on Sunday at Camp Schieffelin cantonment site, experienced an influx combatants that exceeded the capacity of the camp. "At the same time, combatants obstructed the disarmament process by firing their weapons and threatening the security of the population inside and outside the camp," the UNMIL statement said. A hurriedly called meeting between UNMIL and the senior commanders of the former fighters on Tuesday morning agreed to continue the disarmament but spread it out over several days, with a maximum of 400 former fighters per day. A statement issued by Gyude Bryant, head of Liberia's transitional government, said the $75 payment would be an advance payment from an initial $150 that each combatant was meant to receive in the first three weeks of disarmament. "Following consultations with UNMIL, it has been agreed that combatants will receive $75 immediately upon delivery of arms to UNMIL, and after seven days receive $75," Bryant said in the statement. "The action is intended to ease the growing tension that is developing amongst the combatants due to some misunderstanding," he added. The $75 is part of a $300 stipend that the fighters were meant to receive in two parts, the first $150 at the end of a three-week demobilization program and another $150 once the combatants were integrated back into their community. Disarmament of former Liberian government fighters and rebel fighters of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) and Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) is being overseen by UNMIL, but the force so far has only 5,000 troops out of an approved total of 15,000. MODEL has agreed to fully cooperate in the disarmament but the LURD have expressed misgivings saying they will not disarm until they are given a share of jobs they were promised under a peace accord signed in Accra, Ghana on 18 August.