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.