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Liberia: Peace Process Implementation
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Nov 12, 2003 (031112)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
Implementation of the latest peace agreement in Liberia is now at
a critical stage. While the nation's capital Monrovia is generally
calm, insecurity continues in much of the countryside. The chances
of further enhancing stability and of advancing rapidly in
reconstruction depend not only on Liberians, but also on regional
and international commitments.
This issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin contains summaries of recent
reports from the International Crisis Group and Human Rights Watch,
as well as an update on the new humanitarian appeal from UN
agencies expected to be launched next week.
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International Crisis Group
http://www.crisisweb.org
Liberia: Security Challenges
Freetown/Brussels, 3 November 2003: Liberia faces its best chance
for peace in years, but the country's prospects now depend on
bold UN action. With three peacekeeping missions along the coast
of West Africa (Sierra Leone, C“te d'Ivoire and now Liberia), the
UN is in a unique position to drive events.
Liberia: Security Challenges, the latest report from the
International Crisis Group, analyses the immediate security
threats facing the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) as its force
builds up to full strength to become the international body's
biggest peacekeeping operation. The key to meeting those threats
is a comprehensive regional security strategy.
"With three UN missions in West Africa, the UN and the wider
international community have an opportunity that must not be
missed to design and implement a truly regional approach to West
Africa's insecurity", says Comfort Ero, ICG's West Africa Project
Director.
The forced departure of former president Charles Taylor on 11
August 2003, after six years of tyranny, offers Liberians a
chance to reconstruct their country. The arrival of a United
Nations force with a robust mandate is welcome by all who want to
see peace in West Africa.
Creating that peace will not be easy. It will be several months
before the UN has enough troops on the ground to go much beyond
Monrovia to put an end to the fighting and marauding that has
continued. Liberia is a broken state whose key infrastructure,
physical and social, has been destroyed by years of fighting and
self-interested political leadership that goes far beyond the
person of Charles Taylor. While Taylor's troops may be in
disarray, the former insurgents, Liberians United for
Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for
Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), remain in offensive mode. A
generation under the age of eighteen has become all too familiar
with survival through the gun.
The starting point must be disarmament of fighters in Liberia,
but the UN should develop an integrated approach also to monitor
and disarm combatants who cross from Liberia to Sierra Leone and
C“te d'Ivoire. Regional stability requires stopping the flow of
marauding fighters who migrate from conflict to conflict.
In the very near term, there may also be need for coordinated
international action to persuade President Gbagbo against
returning to war in C“te d'Ivoire, and Nigeria to prevent Charles
Taylor from resuming his mischief in Liberia and elsewhere in the
region.
The U.S. needs to make up for the premature departure of its
small force of Marines on 1 October, when the UN formally took
over in Monrovia, by becoming more engaged. This means, in
particular, making clear it maintains an "over the horizon"
military intervention capacity to back UNMIL in an emergency and
conducting a full-scale training program for the new Liberian
armed forces. Visible U.S. support is essential for a successful
donors' conference, now expected to be held in December 2003.
"Liberia is at the heart of an unstable region", says Stephen
Ellis, ICG's Director of Africa Program. "Unless UNMIL is
properly supported and the UN missions in West Africa are
effectively integrated, the country may well lapse into a
permanent state of semi-peace/semi-war that will continue to
destabilize the region".
Liberia: Security Challenges
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Whether Liberia takes advantage of its best chance for peace in
years and West Africa regains stability depends on bold action by
the UN, which needs to shape a comprehensive regional security
strategy while rapidly building its peacekeeping force up to
strength.
The forced departure of former president Charles Taylor on 11
August 2003 after six years of tyranny offers Liberians a chance
to reconstruct their country. The arrival of a United Nations
force with a robust mandate, which will soon develop into the
international body's biggest peacekeeping operation, is welcome
by all who want to see peace in West Africa. But creating that
peace will not be easy. Liberia is a broken state whose key
infrastructure, physical and social, has been destroyed by years
of fighting and self-interested political leadership and turmoil
that goes far beyond the person of Charles Taylor. A generation
under the age of eighteen has become all too familiar with
survival through the gun, and problems in neighbouring countries,
particularly C“te d'Ivoire, mean that the drive to create peace
is taking place in an environment of insecurity.
Pressing questions concern the forces that were deployed in
Liberia's most recent round of war, in mid-2003. While Taylor's
troops are in disarray, Liberians United for Reconciliation and
Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia
(MODEL) remain in offensive mode. They were armed and organised
with considerable assistance from Guinea and C“te d'Ivoire
respectively. Many in the region wonder what their future will be
in the new circumstances.
Another important question concerns the U.S., which has long
historical ties to Liberia and gave tacit backing to the forces
deployed against Charles Taylor in mid-2003 to force him from
power. Continuing U.S. attention is necessary not only if Liberia
is to have a chance of rebuilding, but also to prevent previously
proxy forces from causing new problems either there or in other
parts of the region.
The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) will struggle throughout the
remainder of 2003 to organise itself on the ground. Until its
military and police forces reach full strength, it will be
vulnerable to pressure from a variety of sources inside Liberia,
including both former insurgent groups, as well as members of the
new National Transitional Government, many of whom have strong
connections with the warring factions. This report analyses the
immediate security threats UNMIL faces and recommends steps that
should be taken by various parties. A subsequent study will
examine longer-term issues concerned with the rebuilding of
Liberia.
Liberia is at the heart of an unstable region. One neighbour,
Sierra Leone, continues a rather uncertain peace process
following eleven years of war, and the common border remains a
concern. Another neighbour, C“te d'Ivoire, has settled into a
situation of neither war nor peace but there are worrisome signs
of a resumption of the fighting. Guinea is on the brink of
political instability as the career of President Lansana Cont‚
moves towards a close without any clear provision for succession,
notwithstanding presidential elections on 21 December 2003. West
Africa contains large numbers of small arms and is home to a
floating population of veterans from multiple conflicts who are
available to fight for anyone who will pay and give a licence to
loot.
With three peacekeeping missions along the coast (Sierra Leone,
C“te d'Ivoire and now Liberia), the UN has a considerable
opportunity to drive events. The starting point must be the
disarmament of fighters in Liberia but the UN should develop an
integrated approach with its three West Africa missions aimed at
capturing the weapons of many fighters in Liberia both
foreigners and nationals and tracking the movement of others in
the region, especially those who escape the initial disarmament.
Its peacekeepers in Sierra Leone and C“te d'Ivoire should
properly monitor and be ready to disarm combatants who cross from
Liberia. Regional stability depends largely on stopping the flow
of marauding fighters who migrate from conflict to conflict but
in the very near term there may be need for coordinated
international action to persuade President Gbagbo against
returning to war in C“te d'Ivoire and Nigeria to prevent Charles
Taylor from resuming his mischief in Liberia and elsewhere in the
region.
Recommendations:
To the UN Security Council:
1. Work to create an integrated structure for administering the
UN mandates in the neighbouring countries of C“te d'Ivoire,
Liberia and Sierra Leone.
2. Design and implement a plan for regional disarmament
applicable to all three countries.
3. In pursuit of its previously expressed "readiness to consider,
if necessary, ways of promoting compliance" with its demands that
all states in the region end their military support to armed
groups in Liberia, impose targeted sanctions on the leaders of
those states found not in compliance.
4. Create a timetable for the phased lifting of sanctions on
Liberia, ensuring at the same time that there is proper
management of key government revenue generators like the timber
industry, and concurrently strengthen the capabilities of the UN
Panel of Experts on Liberia to monitor through forensic auditing
the flow of revenue from strategic resources such as timber and
the Liberia Ship and Corporate Registry.
To the U.S.:
5. Make clear that it maintains an 'over the horizon' military
intervention capacity and is willing to deploy it to support the
UN mission (UNMIL) in an emergency.
6. Conduct a full-scale training program for the new Liberian
armed forces that are to emerge as militias and private armies
are disbanded.
To donors:
7. Ensure that UNMIL is fully funded, most particularly its
disarmament and reintegration program.
To the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL):
8. Consult with the International Criminal Court in The Hague on
the collection and utilisation of evidence on war crimes and
crimes against humanity, and make clear to the leaders of the
former warring parties that they will face quick retribution if
they violate the Accra peace agreement.
To Nigeria:
9. Stress to Charles Taylor that he must strictly adhere to the
conditions of his asylum and avoid all further involvement in the
affairs of Liberia and that if he does not, Nigeria will
extradite him to Sierra Leone to face the war crimes indictment
issued against him by that country's Special Court.
To the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL):
10. Reinforce security along the border between Sierra Leone and
Liberia with a view to preventing the passage of unauthorised
persons bearing arms and work with Sierra Leone's army and police
to ensure that combatants who have fought in Liberia are disarmed
before entering Sierra Leone.
Freetown/Brussels, 3 November 2003
Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org
Liberia: Guinea Flouts Arms Embargo U.N. Security Council Member
Facilitates Atrocities
http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/11/liberia110503.htm
(New York, November 5, 2003) "The government of Guinea violated the
United Nations arms embargo on Liberia and supplied weapons that
Liberian rebels used to commit atrocities," Human Rights Watch
charged in a briefing paper released today. On Thursday the U.N.
Security Council, of which Guinea is an elected member, is due to
review the sanctions regime on Liberia, which is in force until
May.
"It's appalling that Guinea - a current member of the Security
Council - has flouted the arms embargo on Liberia," said Lisa
Misol, arms researcher with Human Rights Watch. "The Security
Council must hold Guinea accountable for this major breach."
The briefing paper, Weapons Sanctions, Military Supplies, and Human
Suffering: Illegal Arms Flows to Liberia and the June-July 2003
Shelling of Monrovia, documents the bloody assault on Liberia's
capital, Monrovia. The Guinea-backed rebel group, Liberians United
for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), fought forces loyal to
Liberian President Charles Taylor. In the final offensive in July,
LURD indiscriminately shelled civilian areas. Scores of people were
killed, and at least 2,000 more - overwhelmingly civilians - were
injured.
Human Rights Watch investigated the supply of the mortar rounds
fired by LURD, which accounted for many of the casualties, and
found that the rebel offensive was possible only because fresh arms
supplies arrived through Guinea. Guinea's Ministry of Defense
ordered mortars and other ammunition from Iran and arranged their
onward transport to LURD.
"Guinea has blood on its hands," said Misol. "By supplying
munitions to the Liberian rebels, it not only breached an arms
embargo, but also became complicit in egregious violations of the
laws of war."
One of the areas of central Monrovia hit worst in the shelling was
the U.S. Embassy compound, where thousands of displaced people
sought refuge. The U.S. government traced some of the mortar rounds
to Guinea, which is a recipient of U.S. military aid. Human Rights
Watch called for a suspension of U.S. and other military assistance
to Guinea, in light of its longstanding ties to LURD and reports
that arms continue to flow across the Guinea border for use by the
rebels - despite the embargo.
On Thursday the Security Council will discuss a report by a U.N.
panel of experts investigating sanctions-busting in Liberia. The
panel repeatedly has raised suspicions about Guinea's role in the
Liberian civil war. In the briefing paper, Human Rights Watch
directly implicates Guinea's Ministry of Defense in illicit arms
supplies to Liberia.
The former government of Charles Taylor and a second rebel group,
the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), both of which like
LURD have a dismal human rights record, also were able to obtain
weapons despite the arms embargo, often with the help of regional
allies. In August a flight carrying an arms shipment for Taylor's
government was intercepted in Monrovia. The seized container was
recently opened, and more than 22 tons of small arms and munitions
were found.
"The Liberia example shows that arms embargoes are only as good as
their enforcement," Misol noted. "Liberia's fragile peace depends
on a reinvigorated response to sanctions-busting on all sides."
A peace deal for Liberia was signed in August after Taylor left for
exile in Nigeria. A transitional government of national unity took
power in Liberia on October 14. The warring factions have committed
to disarm, but skirmishes have broken out and the potential for
renewed hostilities remains.
The full text of the Human Rights Watch briefing paper is available
at http://hrw.org/backgrounder/arms/liberia.
Liberia Needs $177 M in Aid for 2004, UN Official Says
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
http://www.irinnews.org
[This material comes from IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit,
but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or
its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item,
please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Abidjan, November 10, 2003
The United Nations will appeal to donors later this month for US
$177 million of humanitarian aid for Liberia in 2004, the UN
Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) said in a statement.
Ahunna Eziakonwa, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Liberia, told a group of
Abidjan-based diplomats who visited the Liberian capital Monrovia
on Friday that the appeal would be launched in Ottawa, Canada, on
19 November, the statement said.
It quoted Eziakonwa as saying the Consolidated Inter-agency Appeal
for $40 million of emergency food aid and $137 million for a
variety of other relief projects would be followed up by a donor
conference in January.
Eziakonwa said the funds would be used for health, nutrition,
agriculture, water and sanitation, and education programmes,
protection and human rights, and to support disarmament,
demobilisation and reintegration of combatants.
Following a peace agreement signed on 18 August, the UN plans to
start demobilising and disarming the estimated 38,000 former
combatants in Liberia's civil war in early December. The process is
due for completion in April next year.
Representatives from Canada, China, the European Union, Ghana,
Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, the United
States and the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) took part in the one-day trip to Monrovia.
Last Monday, the Brussels-based think tank, International Crisis
Group (ICG), warned that the period from now until the start of
disarmament in Liberia was the most critical part of the
war-ravaged country's peace-process.
The ICG warned that it would be difficult to secure peace in
Liberia without the compliance of all three warring factions:
fighters loyal to former Charles Taylor, Liberians United for
Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy
in Liberia (MODEL).
A broad-based transitional government led by businessman Gyude
Bryant was sworn in on 14 October to lead Liberia to fresh
elections in 2005, but it has inherited empty coffers and debts of
more than US $3.0 billion.
Taylor has been granted political asylum by Nigeria even though he
is wanted for war crimes by a court in Sierra Leone. The US
government has announced a $2 million reward to whoever can deliver
Taylor to the court.
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