Rifles were sawn in half to cheers from Liberians today at the launch of a scheme to disarm tens of thousands of fighters in the country.
The head of the UN mission in Liberia warned armed groups against attempting to disrupt the nine-month disarmament process, aimed at cementing an August peace deal to end 14 years of civil war.
"Internal squabbles and factional differences among the principal actors in this process cannot mar the programme," said Jacques Klein, the United Nation's special representative in the West African country.
"They should beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks...This is now a time of peace in Liberia," he said, sawing a rifle in half to cheers from hundreds of onlookers.
Some 400 Irish soldiers are due to take up duty in Liberia before Christmas as part of the peace-keeping mission. An advance party has already been sent to Liberia to set up base. One member of the team, Sgt Derek Mooney (33), from Blackrock, Co Dublin, was killed in a road accident last week.
UN officials estimated that more than 40,000 fighters need to be demobilised, up to half of whom may be children schooled only in taking what they want from civilians at gunpoint.
Peacekeepers say 800 fighters have already disarmed, but concerns over whether enough UN troops have deployed and continued disputes between armed factions have raised doubts about how quickly the plan will proceed.