DDR Bulletin - Issue Nº 1, July 2007

Transcription

1 DDR Bulletin provides the latest quarterly information on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of ex-combatants ( DDR Quarterly ) and in-depth analysis of selected topics related to it ( DDR in Depth ). The DDR yearbook and country briefings published by the School for a Culture of Peace are available online at AFRICA AFRICA: The Second International Conference on DDR and Stability in Africa continued to view the reintegration of former combatants as a challenge and highlighted the need for local support in national programmes CONGO, RD: The BBC accused members of MONUC of involvement in the purchase of gold and the sale of weapons to a militia group in DR Congo. LIBERIA: The National Commission for DDR warns that ex combatants have not joined the reintegration phase yet. CAR: UNICEF and UFDR reach an agreement for the demobilization of 500 child-soldiers. AMERICA COLOMBIA: ICG argues in a report that an integral strategy is needed in order to fight the emergence of new armed groups after the AUC demobilization. ASIA NEPAL: The Nepalese Government accedes to give subsistence payments to acantoned combatants so the second phase of verification is able to continue DDR IN DEPTH Basic services for the reintegration of former combatants AFRICA: The Office of the UN Deputy Secretary General and Special Adviser in Africa organised the Second International Conference on DDR and Stability in Africa in mid-june in Kinshasa (DR Congo). 1 The aims of the Conference included facilitating regional integration of the work being done in the area of DDR with a view to sharing know-how, identifying best practices and making recommendations. The subjects debated included the status of combatants on foreign soil (a particular issue in the Great Lakes region), DDR and Transitional Justice (which are often dealt with separately), women and children linked with armed groups (with a view to dealing with the needs of these most vulnerable groups) and the relationship between DDR and security sector 1 For more information, see

2 reform. Among the main conclusions reached as the Conference ended was the recognition that the reintegration of former combatants is a problem that needs to be dealt with, and that local support is needed in national DDR programmes. This latest gathering was organised in response to the need, identified at the conference held in Sierra Leone in 2005, for a two-yearly review by all the organisations responsible for DDR programmes and the international agencies and donors operating on the continent. 2 ANGOLA: During a specially organised national meeting, the government pointed to the importance of reintegrating former combatants into civilian life. Delegates agreed to draw up legislation that would allow disabled former combatants to find work in both private and public companies. It is estimated that around 288,500 combatants have been reintegrated since the beginning of the current process in BURUNDI: The Secretary General s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, congratulated the government on the demobilisation of child soldiers and underlined UNICEF s contribution in this area. For his part, President Pierre Nkurunziza requested that the DDR programme be extended as he believed this would help to achieve the target of reducing government troop numbers to 25,000 and thus reduce the country s defence costs. CHAD: The government signed an agreement with UNICEF under which the organisation would cooperate in the demobilisation of the child soldiers that had been recruited both to the government s own armed forces (around 300 according to UNICEF) and to armed opposition groups. The organisation indicated that demobilisation work would not be easy and that the measures required in order to ensure their return and reintegration into their communities needed to be defined and consolidated. CONGO, DR: Former leaders of the FRPI and MRC armed opposition groups who have now been taken on as leaders of the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) promised MONUC that combatants from their original groups would be demobilised. MONUC itself suggested that the security situation in the Ituri district (Orientale province) had improved since the last combatants agreed to demobilise at the beginning of April in exchange for a general amnesty and the opportunity to join the ranks of the country s official armed forces. The UNDP and the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding worth three million dollars for a DDR process to deal with 3,000 of the 4,500 former combatants belonging to three armed groups in the Ituri district that have agreed to demobilise. In order to sign up to this project, each armed group must provide a list of the names of all their combatants a week before the transit centres open up. Elsewhere, the British news agency, the BBC, citing an internal UN document, reported that Pakistani blue berets working with MONUC had been involved in the purchase of gold and the sale of weapons to one of the region s militia groups. For its part, MONUC announced that it had been carrying out an investigation since 2006 into the alleged trafficking of gold and weapons with the aim of identifying those responsible, and any information would be handed to the UN s Department of Peace-Keeping Missions so that appropriate measures could be taken. CONGO, Rep.: Frédéric Bitsangou, alias Reverend Ntoumi, was named General Delegate to the President s Office for the Promotion of the Values of Peace and Post-war Reconstruction. This appointment meant his removal from his previous position as Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Situations, and was conditional upon his promise to collect and destroy all the weapons still in the hands of the group he had led, the Ninja militias, who were active between 1998 and The National Resistance Council criticised the government s decision to move him from his original post and called for a return to the spirit and contents of the peace agreement reached on 25 April. 2 United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leona; DDR and Stability in Africa. Conference report, March 2006, at Sierra Leone March 2006.pdf.

3 However, a group of former members of the Ninja militias destroyed around a hundred small arms in a ceremony designed to demonstrate their determination to work for peace. CÔTE D IVOIRE: The Defence Minister, Michel N'Guessan Amani, announced that the disarmament of former combatants would begin on 30 June, with the consent of the two sides in the conflict, the country s armed forces and the Forces Nouvelles. It was also decided that the weapons collected should be held by UNOCI, after the militias refused to agree to the government assuming this duty following their bad experiences last year which led to the suspension of the process. The consolidation of government armed forces and armed opposition groups into a single army, which was planned to be completed by June, encountered a number of difficulties. To date, only three of the six planned brigades have been created, due both to logistical problems and to the refusal of the heads of the armed forces to agree to certain high military ranks (achieved as the result of rapid promotions within the armed groups), as well as issues concerning the salaries to be paid to soldiers. Each brigade should comprise four UNOCI police officers and 10 members from both the armed forces and the Forces Nouvelles. LIBERIA: The National DDR Commission warned of the risk to the country s stability caused by the 23,000 former combatants (from a total of 101,195) who had not yet taken part in any social reintegration programme, along with a further 3,500 who have signed up to training programmes that have not yet begun. The reason given is a shortage of the resources necessary to create reintegration programmes, which in turn is put down to a loss of interest in this process from donors, following completion of the disarmament and demobilisation phases and the placement of around 80,000 former combatants in different training programmes. In order to alleviate the situation, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf announced that the programme would be extended for another year. CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: UNICEF and the UFDR reached an agreement for the demobilisation of around 500 child soldiers. To this end, UNICEF had prepared a community reintegration strategy for demobilised child soldiers under which the communities taking these children in would benefit, along with all the children in the northeast of the country, from the rehabilitation of their social services. By the end of the last quarter the UFDR had demobilised 200 child soldiers. RWANDA: The Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission returned 69 former combatants to their communities and announced that a further 50 would shortly enter the rehabilitation process. Since its establishment in 1997, 60,000 former combatants have been demobilised under this programme. SOMALIA: Ethiopian armed forces began an enforced weapons collection process among civilians in the capital Mogadishu as part of their routine security duties, in an attempt to protect the fragile Somali government. This operation led to tensions among ordinary people who were frightened that they would be identified as Islamic radicals. SUDAN: All 31,000 members of the SSDF, the largest militia group in the south of Sudan, joined the SPLA, the region s autonomous armed forces. The DDR Commission for South Sudan began a programme to distribute food among demobilised members of the SAF. The programme is expected to last three months and is being simultaneously used for the identification and registration of combatants. The Sudanese Peace Force militia group also handed in its weapons and officially announced that its troops would reintegrate back into civilian life. It also undertook to implement the peace agreement. Finally, in Juba (in the south of the country), UNPOL registered 10,310 police officers in the region as the first step in an extensive programme to reform this sector, while Special Police Forces were given a specific training programme in Khartoum.

4 COLOMBIA: One of the main leaders of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), Salvatore Mancuso, denounced the involvement of leading politicians, businessmen and members of the military in the establishment of paramilitary groups. He also claimed that 25 mayors from towns and cities along the Atlantic coast had reached political agreements with the AUC. In response, these public figures acknowledged that they had held meetings with paramilitary chiefs, though they said that this was for humanitarian reasons and was aimed at advancing the peace process. Elsewhere, another report by the ICG recommended that, given that some groups had not yet been disbanded as they had not taken part in negotiations between the government and the AUC, and given that some demobilised paramilitary members were rearming, an integrated strategy was needed to combat these armed groups. 3 Such a strategy would require the use of the intelligence services, more effective application of the law and a series of military measures, and would have to take place in a context of complete respect for human rights. This would need to be backed up by demonstrations of how demobilised paramilitary members had reintegrated into civilian society, with improved infrastructure and development programmes in rural areas. HAITI: Troops from MINUSTAH and the HNP captured the well-known armed group leader Belony in an operation in Port-au-Prince. He was the sixth armed leader to be arrested since joint operations between MINUSTAH and the HNP began at the beginning of the year, operations that have also led to the detention of 400 members of various armed gangs. The DDR Section of the UN mission also oversaw a ceremony to mark the handover of 12 small arms and 12,267 rounds of ammunition. These weapons had been either decommissioned or handed over voluntarily in several different operations. Mission Director Alex Fils-Aimé announced that during the previous three months some 200 weapons and 6,000 rounds of ammunition had been handed in, though several civilian groups joined the National Coalition for Human Rights in decrying this as insufficient and claiming that the programme was not transparent enough. AFGHANISTAN: The UNDP handed control of the Central Weapons Collection Point over to the Ministry of Defence. The UNDP had been responsible for the CWCP since 2003 as part of Afghanistan s New Beginnings Programme, collecting some 32,000 weapons. The UN Secretary General s Special Representative in Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, said that the programme for the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups should continue, given the signs that a growing number of illegal weapons were entering the country. NEPAL: UNMIN announced the launch of a process to mothball weapons from the Nepalese armed forces in 14 different locations. For its part, the government took the decision to make subsistence payments to former members of the CPN and improve conditions at the settlement camps where 30,000 of them are currently living. This followed numerous protests and threats from former combatants that they would take to the streets to demand better conditions at the camps. The second phase of the verification process then began, under which underage members of the Maoist group and people who joined after the peace agreement was signed will be identified as ineligible for the programme. At the same time, UNMIN confirmed that the armed forces and the Maoists are complying with their undertaking to identify the location of mines and other unexploded munitions. 3 ICG; Colombia s New Armed Groups. Latin America Report 20, May 2007, at

5 Basic services for the reintegration of former combatants It is acknowledged that the most complex part of any DDR programme is the phase involving the reintegration of former combatants. While the earlier phases are conceived as more specific and transitional processes, the debate surrounding reintegration focuses on whether this should also be seen as part of the consolidation of the transitional process or whether it should go further and form part of the development and reconstruction process in post-war rehabilitation contexts. If reintegration is seen merely as a transition between military and civilian life, this will lead to the adoption of short-term stabilisation strategies that ensure that combatants are prevented from engaging in criminal activities until such a time as reform of the security sector and political system has been completed. However, a more inclusive view of reintegration goes beyond this transitional approach to security and instead focuses on long-term commitment to development and transformation. 4 The term basic reintegration services is used to describe a combination of initiatives aimed at ensuring the economic, political and social assimilation of former combatants (and their immediate families) into civilian life, initiatives that are aimed directly at the combatants themselves, rather than indirectly through community activities. The vast range of resulting services has been classified in a number of different ways, sometimes following a chronological pattern (short-term reinsertion processes aimed at stabilisation, long-term reintegration services aimed at development), sometimes depending on the characteristics of the target group (former combatants, their families, some specific former combatant groups, the community at large), and sometimes focusing on the type of assistance required (economic or social), though it is frequently the case that a combination of all these factors is involved. 5 The most common way of differentiating between these basic services is to separate them into economic or social categories. Although this classification can be very useful when the time comes to analyse outcomes, 6 it is too general and imprecise and has led several commentators to catalogue a particular type of service under one heading or the other depending on their pragmatic and ideological preferences. But, if we are to understand ex-combatant-centred reintegration as part of a peace-building strategy, this would involve providing opportunities that would immediately give the demobilised combatant an alternative to taking up arms while at the same time form part of the post-war rehabilitation of society at large. In other words, it is necessary to look at the combatant s own specific needs that are not only compatible with but also complementary to the efforts being made towards reconstruction and reconciliation. There should therefore be a slightly different classification that provides for two types of basic service, depending on the objective sought: services that substitute the advantages of war and reconciliatory services, using these categories to define six different areas for action or individual factors. 7 The following figure shows the relationship between services classified in this way and the aims of economic and social reintegration. The idea of offering a combination of incentives that replace the benefits of taking part in an armed conflict is based on the widespread belief that a demobilised combatant will return to arms if the proposed reintegration options do not represent a significant improvement to his or her life as a combatant. The areas identified as contributing to this feeling relate to four potential 4 IPA, Ball and van de Goor, Body, 2005, page 3. 7 Nilsson, 2005.

6 Figure 1. Reintegration services and requirements SUBSTITUTIVE SERVICES RECONCILIATORY SERVICES Economic security Physical security Political influence Social prestige Psycho-social assistance Community reconciliation ECONOMIC REINTEGRATION SOCIAL REINTEGRATION areas (whether real or perceived) in which the demobilised combatant may feel that he or she will lose out : physical security, economic security, political influence and social prestige. On the other hand, the need for reconciliation services comes as a direct result of the existence of these substitutive services, as they may be controversial for the ordinary population at large. The aim is to not generate tensions as a result of the perception that former combatants are receiving unjustly favourable treatment, and this makes it necessary to provide activities that promote community reconciliation and psycho-social assistance that will facilitate the reintegration of demobilised combatants. One aspect that affects all types of service, whether classified under the heading of substitutive or reconciliation, is how wide a range of former combatants is involved. In this regard, the factors traditionally taken into account are age, gender, state of health and military rank. Children, women and the disabled form the so-called most vulnerable groups, and certain ranks and the older veterans have traditionally received special treatment in post-conflict situations. However, many other factors can determine the selection of a particular course for reintegration or the suitability of a specific programme. The case of Afghanistan has been extensively examined and criticised for the way in which services and aid have been allocated bureaucratically and based on assumptions regarding the preferences of former combatants, such as persuading illiterate combatants to opt for the rural or agricultural communities for their reintegration. 8 The individual expectations of each former combatant may be very different from those that are attributed to them as a result of their previous civilian lives, and one should not allow oneself to be swayed by prejudices of any kind. 9 It should be borne in mind that the varying characteristics of former combatants are a key factor in ensuring that the incentives offered are used to the greatest benefit. These people should not have to adapt their strategies in order to find a way of making a living, nor should they have to adjust to the reintegration package they are being offered. Indeed, quite the contrary Michael, Humphreys and Weinstein, Rossi and Giustozzi, 2006.

7 Glossary: ANA (Afghan National Army), AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia), BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), CPN (Communist Party of Nepal), HHRR (Human Rights), DDR (Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration), AFs (Armed Forces), ICG (International Crisis Group), IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), MDRP (Multi-country Demobilization and Reintegration Program), MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti), MONUC (United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo), UN (United Nations), PNH (Haitian National Police), UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces), UFDR (Union des Forces Démocratiques pour le Rassemblement), UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan), UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), UNMIN (United Nations Mission in Nepal), UNOCI (United Nations Operation in Côte d'ivoire), UNPol (United Nations Police). Sources, DDR Quarterly : Afrol News, Alertnet, Amnistía Internacional, Allafrica, BBC, BICC, Comunidade Segura, China Daily, Daily Dawn, ECHO, El Tiempo, El País, Finantial Times, Gun Policy, Human Rights Watch, IANSA, International Crisis Group, Inter Press Service, IRIN, ISS News, MDRP, Radio Kiskeya, Reliefweb, Reuters, Security Watch, Small Arms Survey, UN News, UNDDA, UNDDR, UNDP, UNDPKO, World Disarmament. Sources, DDR in Depth : Ball, N. & L. van de Goor, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, Clingendael, Body, M. Reintegration of Ex-Combatants through Micro-Enterprise, Canadian Peacekeeping Press, Humphreys, M. & J.M. Weinstein, Demobilization and Reintegration, Journal of Conflict Resolution, at < Rossi, S. & A. Giustozzi, DDR of Ex-combatants in Afghanistan: Constraints and Limited Capabilities, LSE Working Papers, series 2, nº 2, June Michael, S., Reintegration Assistance for Ex-Combatants. Good Practices and Lessons for the MDRP, MDRP Working Papers 1, september International Peace Academy. Transforming War Economies: Challenges for Peacemaking and Peacebuilding Report of the 725th Wilton Park Conference. IPA, Nilsson, A., Reintegrating Ex-Combatants, SIDA, Disarmament Programme Escola de Cultura de Pau Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Edifici G Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain Tel: (+34) To subscribe or modify your subscription to DDR Bulletin, albert.carames@uab.cat / eneko.sanz@uab.cat