LIBERIA: Bryant sets 15 April as new target date for start of disarmament

Photo: IRIN

Disarmament got off to a false start in December

MONROVIA, 2 April 2004 (IRIN) - Gyude Bryant, the Chairman of Liberia’s transitional government, has set 15 April as the target date for restarting the country’s disarmament programme, which has been stalled for nearly four months. Bryant announced the date on Thursday in an address to hundreds of women who marched to the Executive Mansion in Monrovia to protest at delays in disarming Liberia’s three warring factions following a peace agreement last August. The women also voiced their anger at reports of rampant corruption in the broad-based transitional government, which is dominated by representatives of the three armed groups. Bryant told the assembled women: “The date of April 15 is a mandate that I have given to UNMIL (the United Nations in Liberia) and so I take full responsibility for putting the date for disarmament to April 15th. That is the day we will begin.” The leader of the broad-based government charged with leading Liberia to fresh elections in October 2005 said two of the cantonment sites being prepared by UN peacekeeping troops to disarm Liberian fighters were 90 percent completed. These sites at Gbarnga, 150 km northeast of Monrovia, and Tubmanburg, 60 km northwest of the capital, and would be ready by 10 April, he added. Bryant said the remaining two sites at VOA, on the outskirts of Monrovia and near the port city of Buchanan, 120 km to the southeast, were also on course for completion by the same date. The head of state added that General Daniel Opande, the commander of UNMIL, had given him assurances that with over 13,000 men on the ground, he now had enough troops to ensure security and supervise the disarmament and demobilisation process properly. “He now feels comfortable with the men we have on the ground to ensure protection on these cantonment sites so that we can begin disarmament on the 15th,” Bryant said. UNMIL is due to reach its full strength of 15,000 troops later this month. UNMIL spokeswoman Margaret Novicki refused to confirm 15 April as the date for resuming the disarmament of an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 fighters who took part in Liberia’s 14-year civil war. Novicki said UNMIL, the Liberian government, the three armed factions and non-governmental organisations involved in the disarmament process all favoured the earliest possible resumption of the disarmament, demobilisation, rehabilitation program. But quoting from an UNMIL statement, she said all parties agreed that a number of preconditions had to be met before it could restart. These included the adequate sensitisation of combatants, adequate UNMIL force deployment, the construction of cantonment sites, the readiness of service providers and the provision of full lists of combatants, their locations and their weapons by the armed factions. The disarmament programme began prematurely on 7 December when UNMIL had only 5,000 troops on the ground, but it was abandoned 10 days later following riots by gunmen demanding cash for handing in their weapons. The single cantonment site operating at the time found itself overwhelmed by former combatants coming forward to surrender their guns.