UN refugee agency joins disarmament programme in Liberia

The United Nations refugee agency has joined the UN inter-agency programme of disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) in war-torn Liberia, announcing it would offer assistance to 40,000 former combatants in the West African country and in its neighbours.

In a statement issued in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, yesterday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it would help demobilized Liberian fighters inside Liberia, former Liberian fighters currently in neighbouring countries, and foreign ex-combatants currently in Liberia.

The DDRR programme, launched in a symbolic ceremony on Monday by Jacques Paul Klein, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Liberia and the chief of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), effectively begins on Sunday.

UNHCR's representative in Liberia, Moses Okello, said in a statement that the DDRR process will allow many thousands of refugees and internally displaced people to return to their homes in Liberia, which is recovering from years of civil war.

Under the DDRR scheme, ex-fighters can bring their weapons to sites in Monrovia, Buchanan and Tubmanburg, where UN peacekeepers will then instruct them in demobilization training. The former combatants will also receive a small financial allowance to help them reintegrate into society.

The UNHCR said it will provide plastic sheeting and kitchen sets to the demobilization centres, and support plans for skills workshops and the building of feeder roads.

Today the agency announced it had begun one-day workshops in internally displaced people (IDP) camps for community watch teams - bands of volunteers who carry out regular patrols around the camps, and mediate during conflicts.

The UNHCR estimates there are still about 315,000 Liberian refugees scattered across West Africa after 14 years of civil war ended this year.