Where are the weapons? Is disarmament really working?
MONROVIA, 28 Jul 2004 (IRIN) – The United Nations has poured 15,000 peacekeepers into Liberia and more than 54,000 former combatants have been disarmed, but UN officials admit that not everyone is handing in a weapon and vast tracts of the West African country remain inaccessible to UN patrols. Officially the news is very upbeat. Asked how the UN-supervised Demilitarisation, Demobilisation, Reintegration and Rehabilitation (DDRR) programme in Liberia was going, UN Secretary General’s Special Representative, Jacques Klein said: “Fantastic, fantastic – I get compliments from everybody!” “More than fifty thousand demilitarised in five months, I don’t know anyone else who’s done that!” he enthused to IRIN in an interview. After a false start in December, the disarmament programme finally got under way in April. Klein predicted that about 60,000 ex-fighters would eventually hand in their weapons. According figures collated by the UN Mission in Liberia, (UNMIL), 54,525 combatants had been di
