Bangui needs US $13.5 million for disarmament programme

The Central African Republic (CAR) government requires seven billion francs CFA (US $13.5 million) to disarm, demobilise and rehabilitate some 7,765 former combatants in a programme scheduled to begin in March, a government minister said on Thursday. Reading a report of a cabinet meeting held on 30 January, the minister in charge of the government's secretariat, Zarambaud Assingambi, said on state-owned Radio Centrafrique that the cabinet had approved a three-year disarmament, demobilisation and reinsertion (DDR) programme that would largely be financed by the country's international development partners. He said the junior interior minister for public security and disarmament, Jules Ouande, had drafted the programme. Assingambi did not specify the different steps of the programme or the government's contribution to it. A World Bank official, Abdoulaye Seck, who toured the country between 17 January and 1 February, said on Radio Centrafrique on 19 January that a World Bank DDR mission would visit the capital, Bangui, in February. Due to the several military crises in the country since 1996, firearms were stolen from military barracks or brought in from strife-torn neighbouring states. This gave rise to militias such the Karaco, Balawa and Saraoui, which fought in support of former President Ange-Felix Patasse during the 1996-1997 mutinies and who have since remained at large with their firearms. Moreover, in 2002, civilians and some government soldiers were reported to have joined a rebellion led by former army chief of staff, Francois Bozize, who overthrew Patasse on 15 March 2003 after a six-month civil war. Many of Bozize's combatants were reported to have escaped the disarmament dragnet that followed the coup. The government's announcement of the DDR programme follows the 31 January closure of a programme for civilians only, conducted by the Programme National de Desarmement, Demobilisation et de Reinsertion (PNDR) and supported by the UN Development Programme. Some 220 civilians, who voluntarily surrendered their weapons, completed their vocational training in December 2003 and each received $500 worth tools in January to start small businesses. The head of the PNDR, Harouna Dan Malam, told IRIN on 6 January that a similar programme would follow for all former fighters, including those from the military, who were willing to take up civilian occupations.