Liberian rebels say they are ready to disarm
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Liberian rebel leader Sekou Conneh hands over a weapon to the commander of Pakistani soldiers serving as part of a U.N. peacekeeping force.
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TUBMANBURG, Liberia (Reuters) -- Liberia's main rebel group turned over weapons to U.N. peacekeepers at its northern stronghold of Tubmanburg Monday in a symbolic gesture meant to help advance the country's stop-start disarmament program.
The government and rebels signed a peace deal in August that included an agreement for about 40,000 fighters on both sides to disarm and so help end 14 years of civil war.
Some 11,000 pro-government fighters have handed in their weapons to the country's U.N. mission (UNMIL) but so far few rebels have done so.
"We are going to turn in this symbolic quantity of arms and ammunition over to UNMIL today and that will serve as a direct message to the fighters that we are not prepared to fight any more," said Sekou Conneh, chairman of the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD.
"We will also use this occasion to tell the fighters to get ready for full disarmament," he added.
Cheered by rebels singing and waving leaves in the one-time diamond center some 38 miles north of the capital, Monrovia, Conneh handed over an anti-aircraft machine gun, around 30 mortars and dozens of rockets to the peacekeepers.
Disarming and reintegrating the fighters -- many of them drugged-up youngsters numb to a brutal war in which thousands have been murdered, raped and maimed -- is seen as crucial to ending the violence that has spread to the rest of the region.
"I am happy to disarm so that I can go to school," said one fighter, calling himself General Peace, as he drunkenly waved a palm leaf in his hand. Others danced and sang their leader's praises -- pounding the arid ground into clouds of dust.
Young LURD rebels celebrate after the handover.
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The U.N.-sponsored disarmament scheme started last December but had to be suspended shortly afterwards after government fighters rioted in Monrovia over the amount of money they expected to receive in return for their guns.
The United Nations recently launched an information campaign to make sure all fighters are aware of the program's conditions.
Conneh said LURD had 18,000 fighters and added that after disarmament his organization, which last summer launched three attacks on Monrovia that left some 2,000 people dead, would be reformed as either a political party or advocacy group.
"We want peace and our people have suffered too long," said Conneh.
Copyright 2004
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
