Liberian forces begin disarmament

? Thrusting AK-47s in the air one last time, Liberia’s fighters started surrendering weapons to U.N. peacekeepers on Sunday, a major step toward ending 14 years of bloodshed and one of West Africa’s most vicious conflicts.

The U.N.-supervised campaign to disarm 40,000 rebel and government forces nationwide opened with government forces lined up at an army barracks outside the capital, Monrovia.

One by one, 1,000-plus government and allied militia fighters — among them boys at least as young as 12 — handed automatic rifles to blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers from Bangladesh.

They then headed off in open trucks to disarmament camps, with sleeping mats and other belongings pinned under their elbows.

“I’m ready to disarm — some of us have a future,” 19-year-old soldier Papa Monger said amid cheering crowds of fighters.

Watching, U.N. envoy Jacques Klein repeated his standing warning of the four months since the nation’s internationally brokered peace deal: “This is Liberia’s last chance.”

“Liberia must put an end to war, or war will put an end to Liberia,” Klein said, adapting a famous quote by President John F. Kennedy.

The start of disarmament comes after an Aug. 18 peace deal, reached one week after warlord President Charles Taylor fled into exile as rebels laid siege to his mortar-blasted capital.

Taylor, a Libyan-trained guerrilla fighter, launched American-founded Liberia into conflict in 1989, with an insurgency bent on taking control of the country.

National disarmament started with fighters loyal to Taylor, who is now living in Nigeria under that nation’s asylum offer.

An unhappy fighter, loyal to former President Charles Taylor, dumps his food ration supplied by the United Nations after he laid down his weapon in Camp Schieffelin, outside Monrovia. More than 1,000 soldiers of ousted President Charles Taylor surrendered their weapons Sunday.

Klein pledged disarmament of Liberia’s two rebel movements would start by the end of the month. But in an ominous sign, the U.N. envoy said leaders of Liberia’s main rebel group had “sabotaged” Sunday’s start date by refusing to allow disarmament camps in their stronghold, Tubmanburg.

The start of Sunday’s ceremony was delayed when fighters, trickling in, initially refused to give up their guns pending payment of a $300 stipend promised by the United Nations to aid their re-entry to civilian life.

Holding up their AK-47s, soldiers chanted, “No money, no weapon.”