Nearly 2,000 militia fighters have laid down their weapons in Congo's lawless Ituri district in the last two weeks, a month before historic polls. Disarmament centres reopened two weeks ago after being closed for a year, giving militia groups a second chance to give up their guns a month before the Democratic Republic of Congo is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.Much of the country remains violent and Ituri - a remote northeastern district where fighting has killed 60,000 since 1999 and militia fighters are still holding five UN Nepali peacekeepers hostage - is no exception. Colonel Francois-Xavier Duku, the head of Congo's national disarmament commission for Ituri, said: "More than 1,800 people have disarmed - the figure is getting near 2,000." Last year over 15,000 militiamen signed up to UN-sponsored disarmament programmes before the centres closed when the deadline expired.