Liberia's wish-list for peace
2004-01-09 08:22
Monrovia - The return home of about 800 000 refugees must be a key element of any plan to rebuild the country after two successive civil wars since 1989, Liberia said on Thursday ahead of an international donors' conference next month.
The west African state is expected to ask for up to $500m at the February conference in New York.
The needs of refugees and the disarmed fighters, who account for nearly one third of Liberia's 3,3 million people, figured prominently in a draft document that is expected to serve as the basis for the conference.
A peace deal took root in August after former president Charles Taylor accepted exile in Nigeria, ending nearly 14 years of continuous war.
Liberia has been under a UN peacekeeping mandate since October that by April is set to be the world's largest.
About 820 000 refugees, more than half of whom are displaced within the country itself, still linger at camps, awaiting the signal that it is safe to return home.
Another 53 000 fighters, most of them conscripted into three warring factions before reaching adolescence, are also in limbo, awaiting either disarmament or orders from their commanders to again take up arms in the still-volatile country.
There is little to no public infrastructure: roads are full of potholes; electricity, potable water and functioning sewers are scarce, and there are few operational hospitals or schools.
The draft document, handed to interim chairman Guyde Bryant and released to the public on Thursday, includes a wish-list of construction projects including 4 300 wells and 10 880 sewage drop holes in and around the capital Monrovia, home to more than 1,4 million people.
About 2 500 wells and 9 000 drop holes would also be dug in rural communities, according to the draft document.
Four hospitals, 25 primary health centres and 50 health clinics would be built in the capital to serve the teeming population, 70% of whom are under age 40.
The plan also calls for the rebuilding nearly a thousand primary and secondary schools, many of which will likely enrol fighters disarmed under the $50m UN program.
About 12 000 former combatants, most of them soldiers in Charles Taylor's army, have already begun the three-week demobilisation programme that is also to include vocational training or schooling.
The country also hopes to recruit and train 28 000 teachers to address the 65% illiteracy rate.
The transitional government, enlisting the input of the warring factions, political and civic groups, also sought to lay groundwork for elections scheduled for 2005 during the three days of discussions that produced the draft document.
Electoral offices would be opened in all 15 of Liberia's counties, and an extensive voter education campaign would be conducted under the reconstruction plan.