Ex-combatants start to go home

Sierra Leonean ex-combatants in Liberia started to return home last week, according to media and local sources. The Sierra Leonean ambassador to Liberia, Kemoh Salia Bao, said on independent Star Radio that more than 100 former soldiers returned last week. He added that several hundred more were expected to return in the coming days, some by road to Kenema and Daru in the eastern part of the country, others by sea to Freetown. "We want all Sierra Leoneans to return home to facilitate nation-building," presidential spokesman, Septimus Kaikai, told IRIN, "but we want to ensure that their contribution to society will be productive and positive." On their return to Sierra Leone they will not necessarily be enrolled into the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme, according to a senior government DDR official. "They will only be incorporated into the DDR programme if they are able to provide the Ministry of Defence with detailed information on the location of their weapons," Francis Kaikai, acting executive secretary of the DDR, programme told IRIN. A UNHCR official in Freetown told IRIN that the return of the ex-combatants was organised by the Sierra Leonean and Liberian governments.