Money, the universal solvent
Former Rebels Surrender Weapons in Return for Money
Abdullah Dukuly
MONROVIA, Apr 17 (IPS) - After four months of uncertainty and anxiety, the 15,000-strong UN troops in war-ravaged Liberia this week resumed a six-month campaign to disarm tens of thousands of fighters. The 15-million-dollar exercise is designed to end the country’s 14-year brutal civil war.
The first five days of the campaign was concentrated on the central Liberian city of Gbarnga, formerly controlled by the biggest rebel movement – Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD).
The process started in Dec. 2003 but was stalled after militias of former president Charles Taylor rioted in the eastern suburb of the capital, Monrovia, in demand for 300 dollars as their resettlement benefits.
The peacekeepers – who numbered only 5,000 and were deployed in a single cantonment site – found themselves overwhelmed with hundreds of combatants queuing up at Camp Schefflin, 48 km east of the city, to surrender their weapons in return for money.
Now the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has constructed four cantonment sites around the country to disarm some 60,000 militias who fought most of the country’s 14-year civil war.
