EC gives 750,000 euros to reintegrate ex-combatants

[This story corrects an earlier version issued on 14 January 2002] The European Commission announced that it has donated 750,000 euros (about US $650,000) for the reintegration of ex-combatants and the collection of weapons in the Republic of Congo in 2002. The funds would be used to reintegrate 1,200 ex-combatants and collect 1,500 arms, bringing the total number of reintegrated ex-combatants to 8,000 and collected firearms to 12,500 by the end of 2002, the Commission reported in a press statement. The areas to be concentrated on would be the regions of Pool, Niari, Lekoumou and Bouenza as well as northern regions. The Commission warned ex-combatants that the programme was neither compensation nor entitlement. Rather, it added, it was a mechanism to protect civil society and for the consolidation of peace. The programme simply ensured the economic reintegration of unemployed ex-combatants, especially those still in possession of firearms, which they should voluntarily surrender for destruction, the Commission added. In April 2001, a public ceremony was held in the country’s capital, Brazzaville, to burn guns collected during the first phase of the same programme. The ceremony was dubbed "the flame of peace" to symbolise the Congolese desire for peace.