Focus on disarmed women

The Central African Republic (CAR) had enjoyed relative stability for about 35 years after its independence when in 1996 it suddenly plunged into a series of conflicts that has since left it reeling in underdevelopment and its population in despair. These conflicts started with army mutinies against President Ange-Felix Patasse and ended with his ouster on 15 March 2003. Recovering weapons During the mutinies, the country was littered with guns, which the current government and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have tried to recover under a disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme set up in January 2002. By the end of the arms collection effort on 15 March 2003, 209 small arms, three machine guns, 134,000 rounds of ammunition, 1,361 grenades, 27 mortar bombs, 54 rockets and one antipersonnel mine had been recovered; and 220 civilians received vocational training by 31 January 2004. Women were active during the mutinies, not as fighters but as "gun collectors", especially in the hotly contested southern and eastern neighbourhoods of Bangui, the nation's capital. As fighters discarded their weapons and fled, women picked them up and hid them for safekeeping. "Most mutineers threw away their guns before running away," Lydie Gbakossia, 32, said. Most women, she added, collected guns this way. Gbakossia was also among 54 women who voluntarily heeded the call for all to hand in their guns. She picked up her AK-47 assault rifle in 1998 as she left home for her farm. Then she hid it well out of the reach of children, only retrieving it after the appeal for voluntary disarmament in exchange for vocational training was made. Cooperative From August to December 2003, Gbakossia trained as a seamstress at the Centre d'Education Familiale, a vocational centre run by the Roman Catholic Nuns of the Saint Paul de Chartre Congregation in Fatima. At the end of her course, she and 26 others each received a sewing machine, iron, ironing board, a chair, other sewing inputs and 50,000 francs CFA ($97) to enable them to start their own businesses. "We have formed a cooperative and we are now roofing our workshop," she told IRIN on Wednesday. She and three other Fatima residents contributed 20,000 francs each to build the workshop. Working in association, it was easier and cheaper for them to call on more experienced tailors to stand in while the women attended short training courses. Vocational training The head of the Fatima vocational centre, Sister Marie-Lydia Tombo, said her institute had asked for six months in which to instruct the trainees but that, because of financial constraints, the government and its partners insisted on four months. Despite this tight training schedule, she said, 20 trainees had mastered sewing and marketing techniques, as well as the organisation and running of cooperatives. The daily seven-hour courses included instruction in civics, on HIV/AIDS, and on how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. Without that kind of knowledge, she said, participants might not have had time to enjoy the fruits of their training. Sister Tombo said nine of the 20 trainees, including Gbakossia, had started earning money from home. As the only seamstress in her sector of Fatima and as International Women's Day approached, Gbakossia said she had plenty of customers. Some former trainees were not so lucky, having failed to convince their husbands of their need to do business. Sister Tombo paid weekly visits to each of her former trainees to encourage those who had started businesses and to awaken the interest of those who had not. While Gbakossia was at the Fatima centre, Nadege Ngounda-Yasse, 20, and five other women attended sewing courses at the Bangui military cloth factory, Mamica. Ngounda-Yasse got her gun, a MAS 36, from her father after the November 1997 mutiny. Her civilian father feared there would be arms searches and reasoned that this would not be extended to a 13-year-old girl. Then when the authorities made the weapons-for-training offer, she seized her chance. "I surrendered the gun without telling my father, " Ngounda-Yasse said. Like others, Ngounda-Yasse ended her training in December 2003 but stayed at Mamica to learn more. "We just taught them the basics of sewing, but they did not learn anything about cutting fabrics," Emmanuel Mokofe, the head of the Mamica sewing workshop and chief instructor, said. He said Ngounda-Yasse was trained for another three months in cutting materials and on servicing and repairing sewing machines, giving her a clear advantage over five other colleagues who could only be hired as seamstresses. While 26 trainees chose to learn tailoring, 27 opted for courses in commerce at Bangui New Technical Institute, and one on modern farming techniques. The remaining 220 male trainees settled for courses in auto mechanics, carpentry, electricity, and electronics. They each received tools worth $500 on finishing their training. To disarm and demobilise an estimated 7,500 ex-combatants and government soldiers willing to return to civilian occupations, a larger programme drafted by the UNDP was approved on 6 February by the government and its partners. The programme, which falls within the World Bank-sponsored regional Multicountry Disarmament, Demobilisation Reinsertion Programme will cost $13 million and primarily will target communities. "If, during the implementation of the programme, we realise that women or any other vulnerable group, constitute a significant group, specific mechanisms will be put in place for them," Fabrice Boussalem, the UNDP official who headed the team of experts that drafted the programme, said.