Liberia moving towards peace

2003-08-15 10:55

Monrovia - War-ravaged Liberia has taken giant steps towards peace in a week which started with the resignation and exit of former president Charles Taylor, but a lot remains to be done to ensure that 14 years of conflict are well and truly over.

The country's main port re-opened on Thursday for food and humanitarian supplies when rebels holding Monrovia's harbour handed charge to west African peacekeepers, and withdrew to a point 20 kilometres from the besieged capital.

This came only three days after Taylor, who was at the epicentre of two wars which raged almost uninterruptedly for nearly 14 years, finally succumbed to international pressure and stepped down.

The disgraced former warlord, indicted for war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone, immediately left for Nigeria to take up a new life in exile leaving a nation in ruins with an 85% unemployment rate and spiralling inflation.

Monday's transition of power was marked by a show of force by the United States which had so far studiously refrained from intervening in Liberia, insisting that Taylor would have to quit the country before it committed troops on the ground.

But barely had Taylor's plane taken off that US helicopters circled over Monrovia from three warships stationed off the coast in a show of support for west African peacekeepers who deployed in Liberia a little more than a week ago.

Thursday's re-opening of Monrovia's port, which had been in rebel hands since July 19, is vital to resolving Liberia's humanitarian crisis, which has worsened during two months of fighting in Monrovia.

Some 450 000 displaced people are living on the edge in the seaside capital amid an acute shortage of food, water and medicines, and countless hundreds have died already during a long rebel siege which lasted for more than two months.

Although the port's handover passed off peacefully despite widespread last-minute looting by both retreating rebels and civilians trapped in the rebel-occupied northern zone, a key bridge separating it from the government-controlled south is yet to be opened up.

Rebel groups

Meanwhile, four-fifths of the country is under the control of two rebel groups - the main Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), and the smaller Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model).

Taylor's former vice-president Moses Blah, who is now the head of an interim government, is currently in Ghana trying to consolidate the shaky peace in Liberia by trying to negotiate a more comprehensive peace pact with the rebels.

The LURD has said it will not accept Blah as the leader of the caretaker government, and is insisting that their chief takes charge.

But west African peacekeepers say they will not bow to the rebels' intransigence, and will try and force a lasting peace through a new peace pact.

A major problem facing the new government is the disarming and reintegration of both the rebels as well as Taylor's ragtag force of militiamen and troops who looted with impunity in return for their loyalty.

Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea has meanwhile said that the proposed west African peacekeeping force - whose total strength will be between 3 000 and 5 000 - is woefully inadequate to act as a buffer force.

Chea had said Liberia needs about 15 000 peacekeepers. The problem is funding and such a force will cost a lot.

A 17 500-strong UN peacekeeping force deployed in neighbouring Sierra Leone to end a barbaric decade-long civil war cost US$2m per day.

Although the United States has sent 200 extra troops as a back-up force to the ECOMIL peacekeepers, Washington's line has still been that its military role in Liberia will be limited in nature.

There are also mounting economic problems to be faced by Liberia's new government.

According to the United Nations, Liberia's unemployment rate is a record 80% or higher, and 76% of the estimated 3.3 million people live below the poverty line on less than $1 a day.

The vast majority of government officials are owed huge wage arrears. Taylor's former army of soldiers and militiamen are currently penniless, and most civilians have not earned anything in months.

Despite its rich reserves of minerals and timber, Liberia's economy had been further battered by a slew of UN sanctions imposed on Taylor's regime in 2001 for his perceived support to erstwhile rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Exacerbating the already pitiful situation was the fact that Taylor and his cronies allegedly raided the state coffers freely, spiriting away large sums gained from timber sales or using it to live the high life.

- AFP