UN extends Liberia peace force
2007-09-21 07:31
New York - The Security Council extended the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Liberia for another year on Thursday, but began a drawdown in response to the country's gradual recovery from a 14-year civil war.
A unanimously adopted resolution said the more than 14 000 troops in the UNMIL force in the West African state should be reduced by 2 450 by the time the renewed mandate expires on September 30 2008.
The cut would be the first stage in a reduction of 5 000 that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wanted by 2010. The resolution asked Ban to recommend any second-stage cutback by next August.
UNMIL also included nearly 1 200 police. The Security Council endorsed Ban's recommendation that their number should go down by nearly 500 between next year and 2010.
The UN force was sent to the country, originally founded by freed American slaves, after its civil war ended in 2003.
Large-scale corruption
Ban said in a report last month that the two-year-old government of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf had made great strides in consolidating peace and promoting economic recovery, especially in timber and diamonds, where sanctions had been lifted. Liberia's economy grew by 7.9% last year.
"Sufficient progress has been made in the implementation of (UNMIL's) mandate and in stabilising the security situation in the country to allow for" troop and police reductions, said the report.
However, Thursday's resolution noted "significant challenges" remaining in consolidating state authority, meeting development and reconstruction needs, reforming the judiciary, extending the rule of law and developing security forces.
Ban had said it was too early to say when to withdraw the entire peacekeeping force, which would depend on the state of the domestic police and army in Liberia, beset by years of large-scale corruption and warfare across the region.
The precariousness of Liberia's recovery was underscored this year after the government foiled a coup plot by a former army chief.
Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president and warlord, was on trial in the Netherlands, accused of instigating murder, rape and mutilation in a quest for diamonds in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Taylor's trial was being conducted by a special Sierra Leone court.