COMMENTARY (COMM):
Liberia, West Africa. Over half of the population fled their homes in terror during its long and bloody civil war. Some like Winifred ended up in these sprawling camps for displaced people. Moses and thousands of children like him were separated from their parents and ended up in rebel gangs, living in the bush for years.
After fourteen years of anarchy, the international community has arrived in force in an effort to stabilise the country. Many see this as Liberia’s last chance.
Liberia has endured years of destruction characterised by marauding gangs of youths, mercenaries, chaos. Violence rocked Africa’s oldest republic in the late 1980s when economic collapse ended in civil war. Dissidents from Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front overran the country, and executed the then president, Samuel Doe. Charles Taylor himself was elected president in 1997 but the violence continued. The crisis came to a head in July 2003. Thousands fled to the capital Monrovia to escape gangs in the countryside. But even the city wasn’t safe. Hundreds were massacred in the streets caught in the cross fire between rebel forces and the government troops. Ordinary Liberians begged the international community to help.
In the course of the war, over one and a half million Liberians were forced from their homes, uprooted and displaced. Some fled abroad. Others, caught between the warring factions, lost their property, their homes, their families and even their lives.
WINIFRED KESSELLIE:
We became afraid, so when we heard the gun sounds – we thought people were coming so we took our luggages and began to run. When we were running sometimes a stray bullet would catch someone – and the gun would make people die – I mean you couldn’t even have the chance to look for your daughter or son – you just had to keep moving for survival.
COMM:
The pleas of ordinary Liberians were finally answered, in August 2003 when the troops from the international community arrived to oust Charles Taylor. By October a massive UN peacekeeping mission was in place and a peace accord signed, establishing a transitional government drawn from the warring factions. Many had never held office before.
WESLEY M JOHNSON, Vice Chairman, Interim Government:
We have a difficult government to run – a government of inclusion but by the will of God we are trying to do our best. And one of the cardinal reasons happens to be that all Liberians are fed up of the war – and so we say we have to put a halt to this nonsense.
JACQUES KLEIN, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia:
The international community should be ashamed of itself for standing by for 24 years – for murder, rape mayhem and chaos here and they did nothing - it was only once when the whole of the west African region – Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire began to fall apart – that someone finally said look Liberia is the problem – Charles Taylor is the problem in Liberia - we need to do something and we need to do something now.
We have a country here of 3.3 million people – the economy is totally destroyed: by that I mean there is no electrical grid, telephone system, street addresses postal services and Monrovia is still a city of a million people without water or electricity…
COMM:
Today Liberia is a country holding its breath. In December 2003 the first attempt to disarm and demobilise warring factions was overwhelmed by the huge numbers of combatants wanting to hand in their weapons – a second attempt is now well underway. Over 14,000 UN troops from 49 countries have been deployed to demobilise up to 45,000 combatants. It’s a concerted effort to encourage all the fighters to finally hand in their weapons. Today, the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia - UNMIL – is the largest peacekeeping mission in the world.
JACQUES KLEIN, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia:
Without the demobilisation and demilitarisation – there is no stability, there is no safe and secure environment, there is no refugee return, there is no displaced person return – and ultimately the process comes to a stall.
COMM:
Disarmament is taking place in the countryside, where most of the former combatants still live. Large groups roam the country roads – walking for miles, to hand in their weapons and go through the process of demobilisation. These men have been fighting in the bush for years. Tension remains high.
Every morning the military pick-up points are crowded with men and women waiting to be taken through the process of demilitarisation. With so many people caught up in the fighting, it’s hard to know just how many combatants there really were and how many need to be disarmed… Rebel leaders are co-operating with the UN forces to verify their fighters. Baby Face is a former rebel commander.
The United Nations forces face a tough challenge cutting through the paramilitary command structures and maintaining a sense of calm. Once they’ve handed in their weapons, they need to find new ways of occupying themselves and earning a living. – a fact that, Magnet, another rebel leader, understands only too well.
MAGNET:
We need to talk about the next plan after handing in our arms. We need to talk about us the fighting men – there are so many of us and we need education, trade, dental, medical, we need something to do.
COMM:
Twenty thousand weapons (and nearly 5 million rounds of small arms ammunition) have been handed in to date. It takes just two days to fill up this container – and there are about twenty sites other sites like this. With every fighter thought to have at least three weapons, there are still many more to come to light. Children – both boys and girls - formed a large part of the warring factions. This boy had been living with rebel fighters since he was six years old. His real name cannot be revealed, to protect his identity. We have called him Moses.
What’s your age? How many year old?
MOSES:
Me – ten and one.
Twenty-one?
MOSES:
No ten and one.
Oh – eleven
COMM:
These children too are going through the difficult process of demobilisation.
JOE MISTRY, Commander MILOBS UNMIL:
Children are used because they are easy to manipulate – you catch them, force them to do things, order them to do things, and they will do them perfectly without questions. So children have been very easy targets for these people – that’s why we have many children and besides most of the grown ups they are lost in war. Children 8 years old use these weapons – imagine – 8 years old!
COMM:
Once they’re disarmed, all the adult ex-combatants go to a cantonment camp for five days. Here, they get processed and are given some ideas for their future. The children are taken to a separate camp immediately – to break the link with their commanders.
JOSEPHINE TENGBEH, Reintegration Programme Officer, Christian Children’s Fund:
Some have been caught up in the war – you know when the war hit they were separated from their parents and the only people they see are their commanders and they get recruited – there are various kinds of atrocities although some haven’t really come out yet to say what they are – some have been used as ammunition carriers, some have been fighting themselves, child soldiers, some have been cooks – some have been wives to them.
BOY 1:
The war started – we were all running – they found my father and they killed him – me and my brothers got split up.
BOY 2:
We were just fighting - most of my best friends behind me died – my own brother died beside me.
GIRL:
Each person was given two parcels of marijuana to smoke – so you didn’t think you will die – you don’t think that you will go down – you are not thinking about nothing.
BOY 1:
I followed this group of children – this man said why are you alone little boy where’s your brother. I said that the rebels have taken my big brother - he said why don’t you stay with us – I said I will stay with you - he was a rebel leader.
GIRL:
They caught one person and butchered them up in front of me – that scared me.
BOY 1:
They used to put people in the houses and burn them down – it’s impossible to find a house still standing - the whole area is burnt down.
JOSEPHINE TENGBEH, Reintegration Programme Officer, Christian Children’s Fund:
These children look like normal children but they have so much sorrow inside – so much hurt inside – and once you start talking to them, you know they are hurt. We want them to be reintegrated in society. And we need to teach them how to live again and so we have to reunify them with their families – if we don’t, they will be left on their own as street children to fend for themselves, and then probably there will be a reoccurrence of these incidents again.
COMM:
It’s difficult for children caught up in the fighting to adjust to their new lives. But with half of the country’s population still displaced, ordinary Liberians too are desperate to start rebuilding their lives.
PART TWO
COMM:
After more than a decade of civil war most Liberians still live away from their original settlements. Some live in makeshift accommodation in Monrovia – hospitals, old hotels and schools. Half a million people live in Internal Displacement Camps – like these. There are 24 official and a further 15 unofficial camps throughout the country.
These camps sprang up overnight. When one camp was attacked, the residents fled and set up another. Most camps now house about twenty thousands residents in cramped conditions. Camp residents can’t work or earn a living… and are completely dependent on food supplies from international agencies. Internally displaced people here are desperate to go home. But, for now, they are waiting and listening to see first how successful the demobilisation is.
Thomas Kessellie, Winifred and their family were forced to move camp six times in eight years. Like many others, Winifred lost members of her family when she was fleeing an armed attack.
WINIFRED KESSELLIE:
Due to the serious attacks and the gunshots - the sounds that we heard – we all became confused and we just ran off – so we never knew where we were. It was due to this war that I have lost my little brother and sister – even my parents.
COMM:
Winifred’s desperate for the violence to end. She’s tired of war, she just wants to find her family and go home.
WINIFRED KESSELLIE:
If they finish with this disarmament – then it means my brothers or my friends will not have arms to attack me with to take my property or to kill me – if they disarm – then we are all the same – and then the violence will stop.
COMM:
Close to the disarmament site back in central Liberia, Moses has been brought to this interim care centre with over a hundred other boys. It’s just one of twenty eight care centres so far, that exist to house both boys and girls whilst they wait to be resettled.
CARINEL MASSALLY, Centre Manager, Children Assistance Programme, Interim Care Centre, Gbanga:
We have to detraumatise them – they are highly traumatised – we have to counsel them – we have to make them feel at home. We are trying to get them to have a sense of reasoning before they go back to the community – because when they were in the community they caused a lot of problems. So we have to come and prepare them here and the also prepare the community to accept them within the community.
COMM:
But it’s not just the children who need to be rehabilitated. The community, too, needs to be able to accept their return. How will these children - and their adult ex-combatant counterparts - be accepted back into society? Many have, after all, been forced to murder, rape and pillage from neighbours who they will see everyday.
WINIFRED KESSELLIE:
We have to forgive our brothers and children because they never did it intentionally – so we just have to forgive them so that we can have peace in this country. If we say we will react against them then the same troubled war will continue. It was not their fault per se and they had not choice – they were beating your mother or sister, raping your wife, killing your children and you feel within yourself so definitely I will join with them because I want to save my people – so I will join them – it was not their fault, so we just have to forgive one another.
COMM:
First step on the road to rehabilitation is reuniting the children caught up in fighting with their families. Milton Gertee from the International Red Cross is trying to help Moses find his mother.
RED CROSS MAN:
You are looking for your family, right – do you know when you were born?
MOSES:
Me no.
RED CROSS MAN:
You don’t know the year you were born?
MOSES:
No I don’t know what year I was born.
RED CROSS MAN:
Now in a situation – who do you think that you would want us to help you find – to tell them that you are here and if you want to go – who do you want to go to?
MOSES:
My mum.
RED CROSS MAN:
Your mum – OK.
MILTON GERTEE, Tracing Officer, International Red Cross:
Many children got lost based on the circumstances – today, and because of the low education given to the children, many of them don’t know the home address of their parents – or even the home town they come from. So we in tracing are finding difficult to find some of the parents – this is why some of the cases will take a long time.
COMM:
While Moses remains in limbo, Winifred is starting to see the possibilities for her future after the war. As part of a nationwide programme she and others in her camp are being registered to see where they want to settle when the demobilisation process is complete and what they hope to do in the future. Peace will only be last in Liberia if people can go home in safety and have a means of standing on their own two feet. Winifred’s dreams of finding her family again are also becoming a reality. While we were filming she was finally – after 5 long years - reunited with her brother Anthony and sister Helena.
WINIFRED KESSELLIE:
I am very happy to receive my brother and sister and now we want to go home to our parents and we will all live together happily – can I have a hug now?…aahh
COMM:
Rebuilding Liberia is a major challenge - half a million people like Winifred, living in camps, need to be resettled and given the chance of a new start. The country itself needs to be almost entirely rebuilt. At present the country is almost totally dependent on foreign aid. The international community has pledged funding support, but not yet delivered all of it. Liberia needs to start earning its way, and encouraging foreign investment.
JACQUES KLEIN, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia:
Unless we demobilise and demilitarise, the whole process fails. We are trying to find every possible way we can to bridge the gap between demilitarisation and demobilisation and reintegrate society – why? because we don’t want mafia gangs or young people disfranchised out there with nothing to do.
I think that many of these people who pledge money are waiting to see how successful this will be.
COMM:
The transitional government has a term of just two years, and within that time it must oversee the disarmament, resettle its citizens, hold free and fair elections and get the country back to work.
WESLEY M JOHNSON, Vice Chairman, Interim Government:
One of the fundamental problems we have today is the lack of jobs – everybody is yearning for money and the government here is relying almost entirely on the goodwill of the international community. We need to put our people back to work, we need to put them back to work, there is no way out. JACQUES KLEIN, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia:
This is a country of 3.3 million people. It has enormous assets - lumber, diamonds, gold – eight and a half million rubber trees and only 15 per cent of the arable land is utilised - it could be a very rich little place.
COMM:
With more than fifty nine thousand fighters demobilised in the last three months and another fifteen thousand waiting to follow, the priority for Liberia today is to find a way of engaging them in rebuilding their country – to sustain the peace, so that individuals like Winifred and Moses can have a future to look forward to - and can finally go home.
Liberia, West Africa. Over half of the population fled their homes in terror during its long and bloody civil war. Some like Winifred ended up in these sprawling camps for displaced people. Moses and thousands of children like him were separated from their parents and ended up in rebel gangs, living in the bush for years.
After fourteen years of anarchy, the international community has arrived in force in an effort to stabilise the country. Many see this as Liberia’s last chance.
Liberia has endured years of destruction characterised by marauding gangs of youths, mercenaries, chaos. Violence rocked Africa’s oldest republic in the late 1980s when economic collapse ended in civil war. Dissidents from Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front overran the country, and executed the then president, Samuel Doe. Charles Taylor himself was elected president in 1997 but the violence continued. The crisis came to a head in July 2003. Thousands fled to the capital Monrovia to escape gangs in the countryside. But even the city wasn’t safe. Hundreds were massacred in the streets caught in the cross fire between rebel forces and the government troops. Ordinary Liberians begged the international community to help.
In the course of the war, over one and a half million Liberians were forced from their homes, uprooted and displaced. Some fled abroad. Others, caught between the warring factions, lost their property, their homes, their families and even their lives.
WINIFRED KESSELLIE:
We became afraid, so when we heard the gun sounds – we thought people were coming so we took our luggages and began to run. When we were running sometimes a stray bullet would catch someone – and the gun would make people die – I mean you couldn’t even have the chance to look for your daughter or son – you just had to keep moving for survival.
COMM:
The pleas of ordinary Liberians were finally answered, in August 2003 when the troops from the international community arrived to oust Charles Taylor. By October a massive UN peacekeeping mission was in place and a peace accord signed, establishing a transitional government drawn from the warring factions. Many had never held office before.
WESLEY M JOHNSON, Vice Chairman, Interim Government:
We have a difficult government to run – a government of inclusion but by the will of God we are trying to do our best. And one of the cardinal reasons happens to be that all Liberians are fed up of the war – and so we say we have to put a halt to this nonsense.
JACQUES KLEIN, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia:
The international community should be ashamed of itself for standing by for 24 years – for murder, rape mayhem and chaos here and they did nothing - it was only once when the whole of the west African region – Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire began to fall apart – that someone finally said look Liberia is the problem – Charles Taylor is the problem in Liberia - we need to do something and we need to do something now.
We have a country here of 3.3 million people – the economy is totally destroyed: by that I mean there is no electrical grid, telephone system, street addresses postal services and Monrovia is still a city of a million people without water or electricity…
COMM:
Today Liberia is a country holding its breath. In December 2003 the first attempt to disarm and demobilise warring factions was overwhelmed by the huge numbers of combatants wanting to hand in their weapons – a second attempt is now well underway. Over 14,000 UN troops from 49 countries have been deployed to demobilise up to 45,000 combatants. It’s a concerted effort to encourage all the fighters to finally hand in their weapons. Today, the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia - UNMIL – is the largest peacekeeping mission in the world.
JACQUES KLEIN, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia:
Without the demobilisation and demilitarisation – there is no stability, there is no safe and secure environment, there is no refugee return, there is no displaced person return – and ultimately the process comes to a stall.
COMM:
Disarmament is taking place in the countryside, where most of the former combatants still live. Large groups roam the country roads – walking for miles, to hand in their weapons and go through the process of demobilisation. These men have been fighting in the bush for years. Tension remains high.
Every morning the military pick-up points are crowded with men and women waiting to be taken through the process of demilitarisation. With so many people caught up in the fighting, it’s hard to know just how many combatants there really were and how many need to be disarmed… Rebel leaders are co-operating with the UN forces to verify their fighters. Baby Face is a former rebel commander.
The United Nations forces face a tough challenge cutting through the paramilitary command structures and maintaining a sense of calm. Once they’ve handed in their weapons, they need to find new ways of occupying themselves and earning a living. – a fact that, Magnet, another rebel leader, understands only too well.
MAGNET:
We need to talk about the next plan after handing in our arms. We need to talk about us the fighting men – there are so many of us and we need education, trade, dental, medical, we need something to do.
COMM:
Twenty thousand weapons (and nearly 5 million rounds of small arms ammunition) have been handed in to date. It takes just two days to fill up this container – and there are about twenty sites other sites like this. With every fighter thought to have at least three weapons, there are still many more to come to light. Children – both boys and girls - formed a large part of the warring factions. This boy had been living with rebel fighters since he was six years old. His real name cannot be revealed, to protect his identity. We have called him Moses.
What’s your age? How many year old?
MOSES:
Me – ten and one.
Twenty-one?
MOSES:
No ten and one.
Oh – eleven
COMM:
These children too are going through the difficult process of demobilisation.
JOE MISTRY, Commander MILOBS UNMIL:
Children are used because they are easy to manipulate – you catch them, force them to do things, order them to do things, and they will do them perfectly without questions. So children have been very easy targets for these people – that’s why we have many children and besides most of the grown ups they are lost in war. Children 8 years old use these weapons – imagine – 8 years old!
COMM:
Once they’re disarmed, all the adult ex-combatants go to a cantonment camp for five days. Here, they get processed and are given some ideas for their future. The children are taken to a separate camp immediately – to break the link with their commanders.
JOSEPHINE TENGBEH, Reintegration Programme Officer, Christian Children’s Fund:
Some have been caught up in the war – you know when the war hit they were separated from their parents and the only people they see are their commanders and they get recruited – there are various kinds of atrocities although some haven’t really come out yet to say what they are – some have been used as ammunition carriers, some have been fighting themselves, child soldiers, some have been cooks – some have been wives to them.
BOY 1:
The war started – we were all running – they found my father and they killed him – me and my brothers got split up.
BOY 2:
We were just fighting - most of my best friends behind me died – my own brother died beside me.
GIRL:
Each person was given two parcels of marijuana to smoke – so you didn’t think you will die – you don’t think that you will go down – you are not thinking about nothing.
BOY 1:
I followed this group of children – this man said why are you alone little boy where’s your brother. I said that the rebels have taken my big brother - he said why don’t you stay with us – I said I will stay with you - he was a rebel leader.
GIRL:
They caught one person and butchered them up in front of me – that scared me.
BOY 1:
They used to put people in the houses and burn them down – it’s impossible to find a house still standing - the whole area is burnt down.
JOSEPHINE TENGBEH, Reintegration Programme Officer, Christian Children’s Fund:
These children look like normal children but they have so much sorrow inside – so much hurt inside – and once you start talking to them, you know they are hurt. We want them to be reintegrated in society. And we need to teach them how to live again and so we have to reunify them with their families – if we don’t, they will be left on their own as street children to fend for themselves, and then probably there will be a reoccurrence of these incidents again.
COMM:
It’s difficult for children caught up in the fighting to adjust to their new lives. But with half of the country’s population still displaced, ordinary Liberians too are desperate to start rebuilding their lives.
PART TWO
COMM:
After more than a decade of civil war most Liberians still live away from their original settlements. Some live in makeshift accommodation in Monrovia – hospitals, old hotels and schools. Half a million people live in Internal Displacement Camps – like these. There are 24 official and a further 15 unofficial camps throughout the country.
These camps sprang up overnight. When one camp was attacked, the residents fled and set up another. Most camps now house about twenty thousands residents in cramped conditions. Camp residents can’t work or earn a living… and are completely dependent on food supplies from international agencies. Internally displaced people here are desperate to go home. But, for now, they are waiting and listening to see first how successful the demobilisation is.
Thomas Kessellie, Winifred and their family were forced to move camp six times in eight years. Like many others, Winifred lost members of her family when she was fleeing an armed attack.
WINIFRED KESSELLIE:
Due to the serious attacks and the gunshots - the sounds that we heard – we all became confused and we just ran off – so we never knew where we were. It was due to this war that I have lost my little brother and sister – even my parents.
COMM:
Winifred’s desperate for the violence to end. She’s tired of war, she just wants to find her family and go home.
WINIFRED KESSELLIE:
If they finish with this disarmament – then it means my brothers or my friends will not have arms to attack me with to take my property or to kill me – if they disarm – then we are all the same – and then the violence will stop.
COMM:
Close to the disarmament site back in central Liberia, Moses has been brought to this interim care centre with over a hundred other boys. It’s just one of twenty eight care centres so far, that exist to house both boys and girls whilst they wait to be resettled.
CARINEL MASSALLY, Centre Manager, Children Assistance Programme, Interim Care Centre, Gbanga:
We have to detraumatise them – they are highly traumatised – we have to counsel them – we have to make them feel at home. We are trying to get them to have a sense of reasoning before they go back to the community – because when they were in the community they caused a lot of problems. So we have to come and prepare them here and the also prepare the community to accept them within the community.
COMM:
But it’s not just the children who need to be rehabilitated. The community, too, needs to be able to accept their return. How will these children - and their adult ex-combatant counterparts - be accepted back into society? Many have, after all, been forced to murder, rape and pillage from neighbours who they will see everyday.
WINIFRED KESSELLIE:
We have to forgive our brothers and children because they never did it intentionally – so we just have to forgive them so that we can have peace in this country. If we say we will react against them then the same troubled war will continue. It was not their fault per se and they had not choice – they were beating your mother or sister, raping your wife, killing your children and you feel within yourself so definitely I will join with them because I want to save my people – so I will join them – it was not their fault, so we just have to forgive one another.
COMM:
First step on the road to rehabilitation is reuniting the children caught up in fighting with their families. Milton Gertee from the International Red Cross is trying to help Moses find his mother.
RED CROSS MAN:
You are looking for your family, right – do you know when you were born?
MOSES:
Me no.
RED CROSS MAN:
You don’t know the year you were born?
MOSES:
No I don’t know what year I was born.
RED CROSS MAN:
Now in a situation – who do you think that you would want us to help you find – to tell them that you are here and if you want to go – who do you want to go to?
MOSES:
My mum.
RED CROSS MAN:
Your mum – OK.
MILTON GERTEE, Tracing Officer, International Red Cross:
Many children got lost based on the circumstances – today, and because of the low education given to the children, many of them don’t know the home address of their parents – or even the home town they come from. So we in tracing are finding difficult to find some of the parents – this is why some of the cases will take a long time.
COMM:
While Moses remains in limbo, Winifred is starting to see the possibilities for her future after the war. As part of a nationwide programme she and others in her camp are being registered to see where they want to settle when the demobilisation process is complete and what they hope to do in the future. Peace will only be last in Liberia if people can go home in safety and have a means of standing on their own two feet. Winifred’s dreams of finding her family again are also becoming a reality. While we were filming she was finally – after 5 long years - reunited with her brother Anthony and sister Helena.
WINIFRED KESSELLIE:
I am very happy to receive my brother and sister and now we want to go home to our parents and we will all live together happily – can I have a hug now?…aahh
COMM:
Rebuilding Liberia is a major challenge - half a million people like Winifred, living in camps, need to be resettled and given the chance of a new start. The country itself needs to be almost entirely rebuilt. At present the country is almost totally dependent on foreign aid. The international community has pledged funding support, but not yet delivered all of it. Liberia needs to start earning its way, and encouraging foreign investment.
JACQUES KLEIN, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia:
Unless we demobilise and demilitarise, the whole process fails. We are trying to find every possible way we can to bridge the gap between demilitarisation and demobilisation and reintegrate society – why? because we don’t want mafia gangs or young people disfranchised out there with nothing to do.
I think that many of these people who pledge money are waiting to see how successful this will be.
COMM:
The transitional government has a term of just two years, and within that time it must oversee the disarmament, resettle its citizens, hold free and fair elections and get the country back to work.
WESLEY M JOHNSON, Vice Chairman, Interim Government:
One of the fundamental problems we have today is the lack of jobs – everybody is yearning for money and the government here is relying almost entirely on the goodwill of the international community. We need to put our people back to work, we need to put them back to work, there is no way out. JACQUES KLEIN, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia:
This is a country of 3.3 million people. It has enormous assets - lumber, diamonds, gold – eight and a half million rubber trees and only 15 per cent of the arable land is utilised - it could be a very rich little place.
COMM:
With more than fifty nine thousand fighters demobilised in the last three months and another fifteen thousand waiting to follow, the priority for Liberia today is to find a way of engaging them in rebuilding their country – to sustain the peace, so that individuals like Winifred and Moses can have a future to look forward to - and can finally go home.