U.N. peacekeepers fired shots in the air in northeastern Liberia on Wednesday to break up a protest by thousands of ex-fighters demanding money they say is owed to them under a disarmament scheme. A U.N. spokesman in the capital Monrovia said there were no injuries and that calm had returned to Ganta, a town on the border with Guinea. Ganta was former President Charles Taylor's stronghold before he fled into exile at the end of years of war. "It is true that the Bangladeshis (U.N. peacekeepers) fired in the air to disperse the crowd," said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission. Risley said the ex-fighters were demonstrating over tuition fees and payments for reintegration, promised under a disarmament scheme that was launched after nearly 14 years of on-off war in the West African nation ended in 2003. Some Ganta residents said the crowd paid little heed at first to the peacekeepers' efforts. "The U.N. Bangladeshi troops are patrolling here and shooting in the air. But the ex-fighters are not leaving at all. As they shoot in the air, the demonstrators laugh at them," one resident told Reuters. But Risley said: "The Bangladeshis performed as directed and ordered and there is now law and order in Ganta." --More 2212 Local Time 1912 GMT
