DDR programme only partially completed BRAZZAVILLE, 2 February 2004 (IRIN) - After several civil wars between 1997 and 2003 the Republic of Congo (ROC) still faces a major challenge: to establish a lasting peace and reintegrate former combatants into civil society. To meet this challenge, the government and international organisations have set up a disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme for former militiamen. However, since hostilities ended in March 2003 in the southeastern Department of Pool, former fighters have been waiting to join the programme and, observers say, any delay affecting this process could unravel the fragile peace. According to the ROC high commissioner for reintegration, Col Michel Ngakala, 42,000 units of small arms are still in circulation in the country, and 37,000 former fighters are awaiting a return to civilian life. First reintegration operation The first operation to reintegrate former fighters began in the ROC in July 2000 in the Departments of Bouenza, Lekoumou and Niari - the southwestern fiefdoms of former ROC President Pascal Lissouba. It was launched by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in partnership with the United Nation Development Programme's (UNDP) project administrative unit, with the collection of weapons held by militiamen. The IOM paid 250,000 francs CFA (US $384.61) for each unit of small arms in a weapons collection operation costing $4.5 million conducted from 2001 when a truce was signed until 2002. Funds for the first phase of the reintegration of fighters needed the contributions of international donors approached by the UNDP. Several partners responded, comprising the UNDP itself ($620,000), Norway ($590,000), Sweden ($500,000), the United States ($500,000), the ROC government ($350,000), and the World Bank (some $350,000). An IOM consultant on demobilisation, Gilbert Mboungou, said 11,114 weapons were collected in the southern departments and in the capital, Brazzaville, while at least 8,009 militia members were reintegrated into active civilian life. After the collection and destruction of the weapons, the 2,609 micro-projects presented by the former fighters were financed to the sum of just over $3.62 million. On average each beneficiary received $448.39. The funds, disbursed in 2001 were used for field investigations, awareness seminars, training sessions and micro-projects proposed by the former fighters. Many of these projects have been successfully implemented. However, not all turned out to be success stories: Mbwa Mabe, a nickname meaning "wicked dog" in Lingala. Mbwa Mabe, 30, who had been a marijuana dealer, joined the Ninja militias in 1999 to, as he put it, "defend his department". Sporting a violet scarf, the distinctive colour of the Ninjas, he recalled having benefited from the DDR programme after returning to Brazzaville at the time of the truce in 2001. "My friends, who were awaiting similar help, sought my assistance to survive, but I was unable to do so on my meagre income [from his project]," he said. "So, when hostilities resumed in Pool in 2002, I went back to trafficking marijuana because it brought in more than my legitimate business." Peace process hampered by lack of fundung Meanwhile, at least 16,000 former Ninjas who had signed up for reintegration into civilian life are still waiting, because the programme is underfunded. As result, many of them were re-recruited and rearmed by the Ninjas when they made an incursion into Brazzaville's western suburbs in June 2002. The number of young fighters in Pool Department remains unidentified to this day. A former Ninja commander, Aime Malanda, also known as Gourbas, said he did not to know their exact number. Defence Minister Jacques Yvon Ndolou estimates them to number 17,000. The same uncertainty applies to the quantity of firearms in circulation. What is certain, however, is that the Ninjas were regularly rearmed between 1998 and 2003. One retired Ninja officer said the weapons were either stolen from the barracks or brought in by groups from Rwanda, or the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. Other fighters are in northern ROC, an area virtually untouched by the war. Militiamen loyal to former President Denis Sassou-Nguesso used to go to the departments regarded as his fiefdom. They went mainly to bases in Gamboma, and Owando, respectively about 400 km and 600 km north of Brazzaville. Having visited the area, notably Impfondo and Djambala, Col Andre Bongouende, an IOM consultant on arms collection, estimated civilians there were holding more than 30,000 illegal weapons. Moreover, Bongouende said, "Nearly 20,000 automatic weapons are circulating Brazzaville, where there has also been fresh recruitment." World bank financial project The second phase of the DDR operation has been dogged by financial difficulties from the very start. However, in 2002, international partners supported aid appeals for the project and for its reintegration segment launched by the IOM. The EU gave $685,000, Sweden $470,000 and the UNDP provided $255,000. The programme covered youths nationwide. Thus, in Brazzaville, 5,734 young people were assisted, 1,130 in the Pool (almost all went back to war), 439 in Bouenza, 338 in Niari, 152 in Kouilou, 68 in Lekoumou, 60 in the two Cuvettes, 53 in Plateau, 25 in Likouala and 10 in Sangha. The IOM said the government had "hardly given anything" towards launching the second phase. Instead, the government, in 2001, established its own institution, the High Commission for the Reintegration of Former Fighters (HCRFF). Headed by Ngakala, the HCRFF has received a $5-million World Bank credit. "This project is very important for the Bank, which is considering supporting other similar projects in the Great Lakes [region] by using the [RO] Congolese model," Alasane Diawara, an HCRFF official, said. The World Bank programme consists of helping former fighters launch individual or joint projects of their own design. The collection of arms constitutes and a supplementary instrument to consolidate peace. "In providing this small sum to the Congolese government, the World Bank expected the reintegration of 10,000 militias by the end of this year. At present, we are a long way off target and the infrastructure put in place in the departments is, according to our local representatives, hardly working," Roger Bouka-Owoko, the head of communications at the Congolese Observatory for Human Rights, said in December 2003. Meanwhile, demobilised fighters in Bouenza have been at loggerheads with the HCRFF, which had been purchasing tools for the micro-projects directly. "We can't understand why they [the HCRFF] are shopping in our place and then present us with tax-free bills. They have fixed their own prices just to reach 210,000 francs CFA [per individual project aid] and the objects [tools and inputs] they have bought are not durable, especially those for agriculture and animal husbandry," said Andre Mankou, 29, a former fighter now living in Kinkoula. He tries, however, to make a living from his little market garden. "I try to manage, but I tell myself that I must think of doing something else in the long term so I can live decently like some of those I see around me." According to Ivan Kibangou Ngoy, the president of the ROC League for Elections and Good Governance, "several signs show that the operation to reintegrate former fighters seems not to be giving the expected results. The war in the Pool has certainly not helped matters for Col Ngakala [of the HCRFF]. However, the Pool is calm now and this should help speed up the process. This department remains a priority as regards social rehabilitation". However, the situation is still volatile. "The press has reported that a number of Ninjas in the Pool are impatient and continue to carry their guns and ammunition, threatening civilians and passengers illegally travelling on goods trains crossing the department. According to some estimates, more than 35,000 former fighters are awaiting reintegration in the Pool," Ngoy said. "I would assess the result of the project as negative. Not all of the funds received have been put to proper use. Up until 31 October 2001, we financed only 76 projects. The others [former fighters] have not yet received anything, not even the second tranche of their grants. I hope that with the establishment of the National Commission for Demobilisation, Disarmament, and Reintegration, [created on 30 September 2003], things will improve," Ngoy added. Need to expedite the process For Loamba-Moke, the president of the Association for Human Rights and the Prison System (Association pour les droits de l'homme et l'univers carceral - adhuc), the government must help to expedite this operation. "The delay in the process is often the cause of murderous incidents in the Pool. In a recent shooting in Mindouli, more than 137 km south of Brazzaville, 13 people were killed, including seven Ninjas. On the eve of the shooting, the Ninjas had immobilised a train at Kinkembo station for four hours and robbed the passengers," he said. In an interview granted in August 2003 to the weekly African Tam-Tam, Paul Ngoma, the prefect of Mindouli, also called for an acceleration of the programme. "We reiterate this call so that something could be done for the former militias. We must accelerate the process of their reintegration and the operations to collect firearms so that these young people can be reoriented towards other occupations," he had said. In reply, the HCRFF said in a communique received by IRIN on 15 November 2003 that it had by then reintegrated 6,658 former fighters. There remained, it said, 2,332. The document was published on the occasion of a mission by the HCRFF to its branch office in the departments of Niari, Bouenza, Plateaux and Pool-Brazzaville. According to Ngakala, the HCRFF had declared eligible 3,095 micro-projects for 8,826 former fighters. Of these 2,424 of them have already received more than 1.3 billion francs CFA. It has also counted 1,875 child soldiers in Pool. Another reintegration programme for former fighters financed at the cost of 148 million francs by the US government was officially launched in Brazzaville on 10 October 2003. The HCRFF has drawn up a list of 624 candidates for reintegration, of whom 350 are young people, including 27 girls. "The selection was made by Alexandre Alumba, professor of psychology at the Marien Ngouabi University, on struck a balance between the three militias known as the Cobras, Coyotes and Ninjas," said Father Christian La Bretesche, the president of the Administrative Council for the Forum of Young Enterprises, an NGO involved in establishing the project. "The principal aim of this project is to develop a partnership between four local NGOs, the high commission [HCRFF] and certain master craftsmen who have accepted the responsibility to taken on he youth to work in partnership," he added. The selected people were able to choose one of nine different trades: carpentry, welding, masonry, electrical engineering, masonry, plumbing, automobile mechanics, tin- and iron-smithing, and tailoring.