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)