MONROVIA (AFP) - The United Nations on Sunday wraps up the voluntary phase of its campaign to disarm fighters from Liberia's civil war, having enrolled more than 85,000 people from three warring factions and collecting some 26,000 weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition.
But it remains to be seen just how effective the multimillion-dollar effort will be owing to the discrepancy between the number of weapons collected and the volume of fighters, backed by complaints from ex-combattants who have yet to receive their promised benefits.
The October 31 deadline does not mean that disarmament will come to an abrupt halt in Liberia, struggling to right itself after 14 years of back-to-back civil war, UN disarmament coordinator Clive Jachnik told AFP.
"It is the cutoff date for the DDRR program, after which time we will continue mop-up operations in remote locations with mobile disarmament units," he said.
"Before the 31st, people have the opportunity to be screened and are eligible for the benefits offered under the program. After the 31st they will not get that chance."
At the center of the UN effort to restore peace and stability to the west African state, and bearing an initial price tag of 50 million dollars, the campaign got off to a disastrous launch in December last year.
At least 12 people were killed in several days of riots in the capital Monrovia as thousands of fighters flooded a lone cantonment site that was badly understaffed by the newly-arrived UN peacekeeping mission (UNMIL).
Five months later, the program was resumed in April in the north-central town of Gbarnga, the stronghold of the main rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD).
It was LURD's uprising against president Charles Taylor in 1999 that sparked the second civil war, declared over in August last year with a peace pact and powersharing agreement.
Since April, the campaign has expanded to eight sites nationwide, including areas along the porous and volatile borders with Guinea to the north and Ivory Coast to the east, both of which are potential flashpoints for a resumption of conflict in violence-prone west Africa.
The final site, in the far southeastern town of Harper, only opened in early October and has been one of the least successful operations.
UNMIL deputy force commander Major General Joseph Owonibi said in mid-October that the number of weapons handed in was lower than expected, complaining that commanders of the rebel Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) troops were not cooperating.
Rumors are rife along the forested border Liberia shares with Ivory Coast that fighters are stashing arms caches in anticipation of a reprise of conflict on either side.
Harper is not alone in registering a discrepancy between the number of ex-combattants and weapons -- the problem has plagued disarmament nationwide and was to be expected, according to Jachnik.
"In areas where there are porous borders it is normal for people to hide weapons, and to try and enroll without weapons," he said.
But when compared to statements reiterated by UN special envoy Jacques Klein that in Liberia there were three weapons for every fighter, such reassurances are jarring.
For the former fighters themselves, the failure of the DDRR program to make good on promises of training, schooling and a full, 300-dollar stipend seems to legitimize their reasons to hold back their weapons.
"Do you think that we are just going to hand over everything, after what happened the last time?" asked Prince Walloh, a MODEL fighter in the eastern town of Zwedru, referring to the botched disarmament effort in 1997 and 1998 that was considered a catalyst of the 1999 LURD uprising.
"No way. We know better this time. If they do not fulfill their promises, we will regroup and fight again."
10/29/2004 - 19:24 GMT - AFP