The disarmament process in Liberia has hit a snag just days before it was due to resume. The rebel groups about to turn in their weapons are saying they want their fighters to be trained in useful skills before being returned to society.
The United Nations maintains, however, that the rebels will be cantoned for a relatively short period — certainly not long enough to undergo training, which will have to happen when they are back in their communities.
This delay is bad news for the UN, building up to a strength of 15 000 soldiers that will make it the largest peacekeeping force on the planet.
The world organisation’s honeymoon period in Africa’s oldest republic is at an end.
The disarmament programme is key to ending the succession of civil wars that have brought Liberia to its knees over the past 14 years.
The initial attempt last December ended in violent frustration as fighters got $75 a weapon. This was meant as a down payment on the $300 demobilisation price. This created a regional market in the rebels weapon of choice: the well-worn AK-47 selling for well under the surrender price.
Halting the process caused angry militiamen to go on the rampage killing several people.
On the second attempt, the UN involved frontline militias commanders, hoping to get their message across to the angry and impatient young fighters they want to coax out of the jungle. The result has been more demands, including training.
The delay is worse news for Liberians. The half million people of the capital Monrovia have enjoyed a period of relative calm. But they know as long as the guns stay hidden in the bush, all bets on a resumption of violence are on.
So do Liberia’s neighbours Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, which have all been affected by the violence that followed the 1980 toppling and public execution of president William Tolbert.
His killer, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, suffered an ignominious public torture and execution by warlord Prince Yormie Johnson, who was back in Monrovia last month.
Johnson was making his pitch for political office before returning to exile in Nigeria, where he has lived these past 12 years.
Not surprisingly Johnson spoke out strongly against the transitional government of Gyude Bryant setting up a war crimes tribunal. The man who personally executed looters with his pearl-handled revolver obviously has things to hide from public scrutiny.
But Johnson, who claims to be a born again Christian and now a man of peace, says that far from freeing the country from violence, a tribunal will only set the ball rolling again.
He does concede, however, that no warlord should be allowed to run for the presidency in the elections scheduled for October next year.
The decision on the tribunal has to get majority support in the interim administration set up last October between the government and the two rebel movements Lurd and Model.
The real spectre remains Charles Taylor, whose exile in Nigeria last August enabled the interim government to be formed.
In his first public interview Taylor insisted he felt perfectly safe despite the $2-million American bounty on his head and the Interpol warrant for his arrest. He said he did not fear the United Nations war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone that accused him of arming and backing the brutal rebellion there. “Some terrible things happened in Sierra Leone, but I was not responsible,” said Taylor.
Three-quarters of Taylor’s entourage that went into exile with him have reportedly abandoned him because they have not been paid.
Bryant, however, is adamant that Taylor must stay out of the country if the transition to peace is to be successful.