Government approves UN agency's disarmament proposal

The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) has approved a US $13-million disarmament, demobilisation and reinsertion (DDR) programme, proposed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), targeting some 7,565 former combatants. "The proposal is in perfect harmony with its [the government's] defence and security policy," the government, the UNDP and the Multi-country Disarmament, Reinsertion Programme (MDRP), said in a joint statement issued on Friday. In its approval on Thursday following a meeting in the capital, Bangui, between government officials and those from the UNDP, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Peace-building Support Office in the CAR, embassies of the EC and France, the government asked the UNDP to present the proposal to the World Bank for financing under the MDRP, the regional DDR support programme. The UNDP proposal focuses on direct support to local communities where former combatants would be reinserted and the creation of revenue-generating activities for the demobilised. The infrastructure in war-affected areas would be rehabilitated to facilitate the reinsertion of the former fighters and reconciliation prioritised, the UNDP said in the proposal. "All the groups of people who took arms either to feed themselves or to fight, all militiamen and other armed groups are concerned by this programme," Assadi Ahmadi, the UNDP deputy resident representative, said on Saturday on Radio Centrafrique. An expert who headed the team that drafted the UNDP proposal, Fabrice Boussalem, told IRIN on Monday that UNDP worked with French and CAR government consultants during its drafting process. A CAR presidential defence adviser, Come Zoumara, said a national demobilisation commission would confirm the number of former combatants targeted for demobilisation. CAR leader Francois Bozize recently appointed Zoumara a national coordinator of the DDR programme. The joint statement added that the UNDP would mobilise funds "in a very short time" for the beginning of the programme, which it would manage jointly with the government. Boussalem said that $10 million was available for the reinsertion of the demobilised and the rehabilitation of infrastructure but that $3 million was yet to be secured for disarmament and security-for-development programmes. With the approval of the UNDP proposal, the government dropped its plan, which it had adopted during a 30 January cabinet meeting when it had estimated its three-year DDR programme at 7 billion francs CFA ($13.5 million) for the same number of former fighters. Due to the repeated crises since the mid-1990s and subsequent proliferation of armed groups and militias, the CAR is facing a serious problem of insecurity. Firearms were stolen from military barracks or brought in from war-torn neighbouring countries, and only a few of them have been recovered, so far. Dieudonne Kolengo, a deputy governor of Mbres, a town 425 km northeast of Bangui in the war-ravaged province of Nana Grebizi, on Sunday urged military authorities to deploy troops in the area where armed robbers continue to terrorise the public. "Most of the residents in this area remain in hiding to escape from attacks by highway robbers," Kolengo said. He added that if nothing was done urgently, farmers would lose another planting season due to start in April-May. Kolengo said no military official had been sent to Mbres since the 15 March 2003 rebellion that brought Bozize to power. The only government DDR programme undertaken, so far, was for some 220 civilians who voluntarily surrendered arms and underwent vocational training. This programme ended on 31 January. Meanwhile, the junior interior minister in charge of public security and disarmament, Jules Ouande, signed on Friday a decision creating an armed joint disarmament unit, the Brigade Mixte de Desarmement. The unit is mandated to search vehicles, luggage and containers entering Bangui for guns. The unit, whose strength was not indicated, comprises soldiers, gendarmes and policemen, and will be posted in all entry points into Bangui, including Bangui Mpoko Airport and river ports.