FBIS3-552 "drafr046_e_94006"
FBIS-AFR-94-046 Document Type:Daily Report 9 Mar 1994
WEST AFRICA Liberia

UN Mission Chief Says Fewer Factions Need Disarming

AB0803180894 Paris AFP in English 1512 GMT 8 Mar 94 AB0803180894 Paris AFP Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Monrovia, March 8 (AFP) -- The number of Liberian faction fighters needing to be disarmed under the peace plan ending four years of civil war has been halved, UN observer mission chief Daniel Opande disclosed here on Tuesday [8 March]. The original estimate had been 60,000, comprising men under arms with the National Patriotic Front of Liberia [NPFL] of Charles Taylor, its main rival the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia [ULIMO], and soldiers of the armed forces serving the interim government. But latest figures supplied by the three factions gave the NPFL and ULIMO l0,000 guerrillas each and the army slightly fewer, General Opande said. The new figure of some 30,000 was more realistic, since a ceasefire had been in force since last July and units had disbanded to return to civilian life, Opande said. Opande, a Kenyan officer, is head of a 300-strong UN observer mission supervising the disarmament, which is being carried out by 20,000 troops from eight African countries comprising a monitoring group, Economic Community of West African States Cease-Fire Monitoring Group [ECOMOG], stationed in Liberia by the Economic Community of West African States. ECOMOG, then 4,000-strong, was first deployed here in mid-1990. According to UN estimates, 150,000 people were killed in the years of fighting, and a further 700,000 fled the country. UN special representative Trevor Gordon-Somers, speaking to the press after Opande, said he expected 60 percent of the refugees to return home "spontaneously" in the coming two to three months. He has a budget of five million dollars for resettling the combatants and restoring ruined villages. After months of wrangling among the factions, aggravated by internal feuding, a five-member collective presidency, the state council, was sworn in on Monday to prepare for a general election next September.