Hundreds of former Taylor fighters surrender weapons

Two hundred and forty fighters of Liberia's former government that was led by president Charles Taylor surrendered their weapons to peacekeepers of the United Nations Mission to Liberia (UNMIL), along the Monrovia-Buchanan highway last weekend, officials said. Another 60 were disarmed by UN peacekeepers in the northern Nimba county on Tuesday, General Festus Okonkwo, UNMIL Sector 1 Commander, told a news conference in the capital, Monrovia. General Okonkwo said those who handed in their weapons were encamped at Compound 1 in Grand Bassa, 35 km southeast of the capital, Monrovia. Those disarmed in Nimba were encamped at Scheifflin military barracks in lower Margibi county, 15 km southeast of Monrovia. "Efforts are being made to provide them with food in their vicinities," General Okonkwo said. The deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Liberia, Souren Seraydarian, told the reporters that UNMIL was trying to make sure that the 300 disarmed fighters are registered so that they can participate in disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes. UNMIL expects to start on 7 December, a nationwide disarmament and demobilisation programme of fighters from all Liberia's warring groups, including the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), and militias loyal to Taylor. "Meetings are taking place on a regular basis for those who are going to provide health and medical services, food, psycho-social advice for the combatants," Seraydarian said. "The preparatory work for the exercise is being undertaken in cooperation with the military command structure of the three parties," he added. As a sign of progress towards the disarmament programme, Seraydarian said, the identification of cantonment sites for the fighters had been done in consultation with the three parties. The former government militias and MODEL fighters engaged in shootout early last week along the highway from Monrovia to the port city of Buchanan, 120 km southeast of Monrovia. UNMIL Force Commander General Daniel Opande traveled to Compound One on Thursday to investigate reports of fighting between the pro-Taylor militia men and rebels of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) and directed the immediate disarmament of 300 to 400 militia fighters. Skirmishes were also reported recently between the militias and MODEL rebels near Tapeta in Nimba County close to the border with Cote d'Ivoirte. The skirmishes displaced at least 10,000 people in Saclepea, key town in Nimba. The pro-Taylor militias are blamed for continuing skirmishes with rebel fighters three months after the signing of a peace agreement to end 14 years of civil war. Earlier this month, Seraydarian warned that violations of the August peace agreement would not be tolerated and there would be no amnesty for war crimes committed after 8 October. He said UNMIL which has only 5,000 troops at the moment, hoped to deploy its soldiers throughout Liberia by February. The force expects to reach its full strength of 15,000 peacekeepers in March.