National disarmament campaign launched

The prime minister of the Central African Republic (CAR), Martin Ziguele, has launched a national disarmament and arms collection programme, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported on Monday. General Lamine Cisse, head of the UN Peace-building Support Office in CAR (known by its French acronym BONUCA), and other speakers at the launch emphasised the importance of disarmament for restoring peace and security to encourage refugees to return home, attract foreign investment, and promote human development in the country, UNDP said. "Disarmament and arms collection are part of the political, psychological and cultural changes required for peace-building and conflict resolution," said Kingsley Amaning, officer-in-charge of the UNDP in CAR. Under the programme, a public-awareness campaign organised by local disarmament committees established in all the communes of the capital, Bangui, and all other districts in the country, would encourage people to turn in their weapons voluntarily, UNDP said. The committees would include representatives from local authorities, religious groups, civil society groups, political parties and security forces. The first phase of the initiative aimed to collect 4,000 small arms, as well as provide vocational training and facilitate employment opportunities for 400 people who turned in weapons, UNDP reported. If this initiative is successful, the second phase plans to collect 6,000 weapons and help 600 people to find jobs. Following three army mutinies in 1996 and the signing of a peace accord - the Bangui Agreements - the following year, a UN peacekeeping mission, known by its French acronym, MINURCA, was deployed in CAR in April 1998. The mission closed in February 2000 and was replaced with BONUCA, but this was followed by another unsuccessful coup attempt in May 2001, led by a two-time former head of state, General Andre Kolingba. General Francois Bozize, the former chief of staff of the CAR armed forces, was subsequently implicated in the coup attempt and, following a clash with government forces, fled with his supporters to neighbouring Chad. Subsequent clashes occurred along the border. Despite an amnesty offered to Bozize and his supporters, he has not yet returned home, and UNDP estimates that 20,000 civilians and 1,000 soldiers remain in exile in neighbouring countries. UNDP says groups and individuals in and around Bangui still illegally possess arms. Small arms are also illegally filtering into remote areas of CAR as a result of insurrections in neighbouring countries.