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Liberia Disperses Warring Factions but

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Agence France Presse
November 4, 2004

Liberia said it had finished dismantling its warring factions on Wednesday in an effort to end 14 years of war. Yet the announcement came against a backdrop of new violence in the capital and concerns that promises to rehabilitate ex-combatants have yet to be fulfilled. "We have dismantled a critical component of the war machine but it will be meaningless unless we create opportunities," said Moses Jarbo, chairman of the National Disarmament Commission.


Since the United Nations disarmament program resumed in April after a disastrous start last December, more than 96,000 men, women and children have enrolled, handing in some 27,000 weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition, according to the latest United Nations statistics. "I would like to take this moment to declare our organization, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, officially dissolved," said Sekou Conneh, chairman of the group that took up arms in 1999 against former President Charles Taylor, setting off Liberia's second civil war since 1989.

But severe underfinancing of the rehabilitation and reintegration phase has left most ex-combatants without work and without prospects in a country with an unemployment rate estimated at 80 percent. "The thousands of young fighters are now the responsibility of the transitional government and will look up to you for leadership," said Lewis Brown, who was foreign minister under Mr. Taylor.

The disarmament ceremony at the presidential mansion occurred against a backdrop of tighter security. Riots last week left at least 18 people dead and hundreds of properties burned to the ground, including mosques, churches and religious schools. Ethnic tensions between the mostly Muslim Mandingos and Liberia's other, mainly Christian ethnic groups helped fuel the violence, along with mounting frustration at the dire living conditions here. An emergency curfew has been in force in Monrovia since Friday, and security considerations prevented six West African heads of state from attending Wednesday's event.

"We knew there would be setbacks but we will not be derailed by a coalition of the unwilling," the United Nations special envoy, Jacques Klein, said in his address. While the disarmament operation gets under way, reports are rampant of arms caches in Liberia and across its porous borders with Guinea and Ivory Coast, both potential flashpoints. "This is a new chance for Liberia," said a former Nigerian president, Abdu Salami Abubakar, the chief mediator for the Economic Community of West African States in the Liberian peace effort. "I hope you do not blow it up."


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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.