China's peacekeeping troops have transported the first group of
250 disarmed Liberian fighters to Gbarnga Cantonment Site, about
160 km northeast from Monrovia, marking the restart of the UN
disarmament program in the country, a Chinese officer told Xinhua
on Friday.
Major Zhang Jinliang, deputy head of Transportation Unit of
China's peacekeeping troops, said the program has been being
carried out smoothly on Thursday in the country which had suffered
a 14-year-long bloody civil war which claimed 200,000 lives.
"It heralds the formal start of the UN Disarmament,
Demobilization, Reeducation and Reintegration (DDRR) Program in
Liberia," said Zhang, who is in charge of the UN transportation
mission in Gbarnga.
He said that the Chinese peacekeeping troops transported on
Thursday about 250 disarmed former fighters to the Gbarnga
Cantonment Site. "Most of the fighters are in their early 20s, some
are teenagers and the youngest one is only eight years old," he
said.
According to Shen Gangfeng, commander of China's Peacekeeping
Transport Unit, the Chinese peacekeeping troops dispatched 36
officers and soldiers and 17 motor vehicles to carry out the DDRR
program.
The DDRR program is an important step adopted by the United
Nations to carry out peace process in the war-torn west African
country with a population of 3 million. It was first carried out
last December but failed due to poor preparations and lack of funds
to pay disarmed fighters as life relief.
Under the DDRR program, all the former fighters numbering about
17,000 in the country will be disarmed, 250 fighters are going to
be disarmed per day and each disarmed fighter will be paid US$300
in two installments and receive professional training before they
return to society.
(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2004)