Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 6. september
2007 / Timeline September 6, 2007
Version 3.5
5. September 2007, 7. September 2007
09/06/2007
Hovsamissilet,
1982.
09/06/2007
Sierra Leone: Not a lot of guns but a lot of frustration
FREETOWN, 6 September 2007 (IRIN) - With an estimated 72,490
fighters disarmed in less than two years, observers agree Sierra
Leone now has surprisingly few weapons for a country that was awash
with them just six years ago. For this, credit goes to the UN and
government disarmament and demobilisation programmes, but many say
the root causes of the armed conflict remain.
Efforts to re-integrate ex-combatants into society have been
largely ineffective, the observers say.
"Sierra Leone should not be wiped off the list of post-war
countries that could return to conflict," Ibrahim Bangura the
director of PRIDE, a non-governmental organisation working with
ex-combatants, told IRIN. "Under the right conditions all the
peace-building efforts we have seen so far may yet collapse."
A portent, he said, can be seen with the campaign for the 8
September presidential election in which each of the main parties
has brought in ex-combatants as bodyguards and for security.
Bangura said security for the opposition All People's Congress is
headed by former rebel soldier Idrissa Kamara nicknamed 'Leather
Boots', who was only recently released from prison for having
committed treason. The Sierra Leone People's Party's security is
headed by Tom Nyuma, a well-known former army officer accused of
multiple rights violations.
Youth groups supporting the two parties have also battled each
other in various cities and towns around the country using stones,
sticks and, at times, machetes, with several people wounded and at
least one killed.
"Just imagine if there were still guns around," Bangura said. "Far
more people would have been killed, and the situation could easily
escalate."
Despite the many clashes ahead of the election, no one has so far
reportedly used fire-arms other than police shooting in the
air.
Where have all the guns gone?
Ex-combatants were persuaded to give up their weapons in 2002 for
money. Donors paid a total of US$80 million for Disarmament,
Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR), according to the UN DDR
website's summary of its activities in Sierra Leone.
Each combatant in Sierra Leone reportedly received $150 for handing
in a weapon. However DDR statistics show that while around 72,490
combatants were disarmed fewer than half that number of weapons was
collected.
One explanation, according to Allan Quee, the founder of PRIDE, who
recently returned from working as a DDR consultant for the UN
mission in Liberia, is that many weapons in Sierra Leone ended up
in Liberia as the DDR programme there offered twice as much as DDR
was offering in Sierra Leone. He said other weapons may have gone
to Cote d'Ivoire where the DDR programme has offered four times as
much.
What ever the means were by which it happened, Sierra Leone is now
largely weapons free, particularly in the countryside, according to
Mohamed Kamara who heads the last phase of disarmament in Sierra
Leone with a UN Development Programme project called Arms for
Development.
The project now provides communities with development incentives of
up to $60,000 to each chiefdom once it achieves an "arms free"
rating, but of the more than 6,000 weapons that Arms for
Development has collected nation-wide most are antique hunting
shotguns, Kamara said.
"Now the problem is that farmers are complaining about buffalo and
other wild animals destroying their fields and they have no means
of chasing them away," Kamara said. "We are trying to help the
government create legislation that will allow people to own guns
again for legitimate reasons."
"We are powerless but. angry"
The other good news for Sierra Leone is that not only did the
former rebel Revolutionary Armed Front (RUF) disarm but observers
agree that without weapons the organisation's command structure
largely dissolved. After the death of its leader, Foday Sankoh, in
2003 the armed group even failed to turn itself into a political
party.
Yet the ex-combatants are all still around, and most are
unemployed, idle and frustrated.
Many say they feel cheated by DDR. "We were made promises about
what would happen to us after we disarmed but the promises were
empty," an ex-combatant in the former RUF stronghold of Makeni told
IRIN, refusing to give his name.
"Now we are powerless but we are angry," he said.
Lessons learned
One of the lessons learned from DRR in Sierra Leone, according to
DDR's summary of its programme there, is that not enough attention
was paid to re-integrating ex-combatants. "The duration of the six
month skills training was insufficient and did not provide
recipients with the required experience to favourably compete in
the labour market," the DDR summary stated.
About 54,439 ex-combatants were taught various skills, including
carpentry and masonry. Also 45,000 ex-combatants as well as some
dependents received food and cooking utensils.
However, an analysis based on an independent survey of
ex-combatants published in the August issue of the Columbia Journal
of Conflict Resolution, found little evidence that those
ex-combatants who went through the DDR programme re-integrated into
society any better than those ex-combatants that did not go through
the programme. "Non-participants in DDR do just as well as those
who entered the formal demobilisation programme," the authors of
the report said.
UN DDR also laments that other post-conflict programmes in Sierra
Leone did not try to work with ex-combatants. "The loose linkages
between the DDR programme and other longer-term reintegration and
recovery programmes in the country have affected the smooth
transition to longer-term recovery."
Allan Quee of PRIDE agrees: "The problem is that the DDR was
thought of as something separate from reconstruction," he said.
"The planners of infrastructure projects didn't think about
bringing in ex-combatants to do the work."
What will happen to the tens of thousands of idle ex-combatants is
an open question. "This country's long term future depends on
finding an answer," Quee said.
09/06/2007
Air Force Investigates Alleged Nuke Transfer, Pentagon Spokesman
Says
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2007 - The Pentagon is awaiting results of an
Air Force investigation into the alleged improper transfer of
weapons by air from a base in North Dakota to a Louisiana military
installation last week.
News reports say several nuclear-tipped cruise missiles were
mistakenly attached to the wing of a B-52 bomber, which then flew
for more than three hours across several states. Media reports
state the aircrew did not know nuclear weapons were aboard.
"The Air Force is currently investigating an error made last
Thursday in the transfer of munitions ... from Minot Air Force Base
to Barksdale Air Force Base aboard a B-52 Stratofortress," Pentagon
spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters at a news conference here
yesterday.
However, citing long-standing Defense Department policy, Morrell
did not confirm nuclear weapons were involved in the incident.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates "was quickly informed" of the
Aug. 30 incident, Morrell said. He added that Gates has been
getting daily briefings from senior Air Force leaders on the
progress of the investigation.
The incident was of sufficient importance "that President Bush was
notified of it," Morrell said.
Gen. T. Michael Moseley, the Air Force's chief of staff, has
assured Gates that the munitions in question were under proper
supervision at all times and that "at no time was the public in
danger," Morrell reported.
He said he wasn't aware if any disciplinary action was taken
against Air Force personnel as a result of the incident.
The Air Force's investigative report of the incident should be
delivered to Gates "by the end of next week," Morrell said.
09/06/2007
Top
Send
kommentar, email
eller søg i Fredsakademiet.dk
|