Disarmament starts on Ivory Coast border

MONROVIA – UN peacekeepers have moved in to volatile south-eastern Liberia to begin disarming combatants who are reportedly running weapons over the border into Ivory Coast, the UN mission in the west African state said yesterday.

UNMIL had to abort its campaign in the key city of Zwedru three times before finally launching the four-phase process on Friday in the Grand Gedeh provincial capital some 40 kilometres from the Ivorian border. Zwedru is a stronghold of the rebel Movement for Democracy in Liberia, a well-armed grouping backed by Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo in their battle against former Liberian president Charles Taylor, that raged from late 2002 until a peace pact was signed in August last year.Gbagbo is said to have funded MODEL, an offshoot of the main rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, in exchange for their help in quelling a rebellion in western Ivory Coast.UNMIL has been in dogged pursuit of MODEL’s arsenal of mortars, bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft machine guns but few heavy armaments have been turned over to peacekeepers since April 20, when the process came to the port city of Buchanan, the MODEL headquarters.After ten days of lacklustre disarmament, mostly involving low-ranking porters and combatants who showed up bearing paltry offerings of weapons, the Buchanan process was suspended.- Nampa-AFPZwedru is a stronghold of the rebel Movement for Democracy in Liberia, a well-armed grouping backed by Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo in their battle against former Liberian president Charles Taylor, that raged from late 2002 until a peace pact was signed in August last year.Gbagbo is said to have funded MODEL, an offshoot of the main rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, in exchange for their help in quelling a rebellion in western Ivory Coast.UNMIL has been in dogged pursuit of MODEL’s arsenal of mortars, bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft machine guns but few heavy armaments have been turned over to peacekeepers since April 20, when the process came to the port city of Buchanan, the MODEL headquarters.After ten days of lacklustre disarmament, mostly involving low-ranking porters and combatants who showed up bearing paltry offerings of weapons, the Buchanan process was suspended.- Nampa-AFP