LIBERIA: UN finds money to send expelled former combatants back to school

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

MONROVIA, 2 Feb 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations said on Wednesday that it had secured enough money to pay the school fees of nearly 4,000 former Liberian combatants who were expelled from secondary schools last month because there was no money left in the rehabiliation fund to pay for their tuition.

Charles Achodo, a policy advisor of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), told reporters that all those ex-fighters who had been asked to leave school should be back in the classroom by the end of next week.

"UNDP is pleased to announce that it has been able to secure a grant to cater for the education needs of ex-combatants. The amount is from future pledges and current commitments to the DDRR Trust Fund for ex-combatants from donors," he said.

"Starting from now until next week, we will be working on the schedule of how we can get the principals and heads of schools where ex-combatants are enrolled, to sign the contract for the immediate disbursement of resources for the combatants to continue with their studies," Achodo added.

The UN ended up disarming 103,000 people claiming to be ex-fighters in Liberia's 1989-2003 civil war, more than twice the number it had originally planned for.

As a result, the UN has been faced with a shortfall of US$58 million to pay for their rehabilitation and reintegration into the community.

Achodo said the UN Trust Fund for Disarmament, Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DDRR) had failed to cover the school fees of 3,792 former combatants from 88 different secondary schools, triggering their expulsion after the Christmas holidays.

"We made an initial projection and provision for 38,000 combatants overall in the country overall in the country. But at the end of the disarmament and demobilisation process we had more than 103,000, causing a constraint on the resources that were available to address the reintegration needs," he said.

Achodo said 41 percent of all those disarmed had opted to go back to school for formal education since many schools were destroyed or closed during Liberia's 14-year civil war.

But he said that until now the DDRR Trust Fund only had the resources to pay the fees of 7,202 of the 11,000 former rebels and government soldiers wanting to attend secondary school.

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