Liberia needs $500m to rebuild

2004-02-04 08:49

Monrovia - International donors are to meet this week to pledge a hoped-for $500m to rebuild Liberia after 14 years of war that destabilised the entire west African sub-region.

But analysts warn that without long-term international commitment to disarm and reintegrate fighters in Liberia's back-to-back civil wars into civilian life, no amount of financial aid will ensure a transition to a peaceful and democratic state.

"There is no quick solution here," said Comfort Ero, the west Africa director of the International Crisis Group, in a report released this week.

"Liberia is a collapsed state that has effectively become a UN protectorate, so the international community will have to be there for the long haul."

About $170m in emergency humanitarian aid has already been requested for the country settled in the 19th century by freed American slaves.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is hoping that the conference on Thursday and Friday at UN headquarters in New York will raise an additional $400m to $500m to fund a two-year reconstruction plan.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and Annika Soeder of Sweden's ministry of co-operation are expected to attend.

Rich in diamonds

Rich in resources such as rubber, timber and diamonds, Liberia has been plundered by two civil wars.

There is no effective sanitation or consistent supply of drinking water, roads are pitted with potholes and electricity supplies are non-existent outside the capital, Monrovia.

Few schools have teachers, healthcare facilities are bare of even essential medicines and 80% Liberia's 3.3 million people - two-thirds of whom are under age 40 - are unemployed.

The United Nations and Liberia have made the rehabilitation of 50 000 fighters from three warring factions central to the reconstruction effort.

Only 12 000 fighters were disarmed under an ill-fated programme launched in December by the UN Mission in Liberia, postponed after only a week because of poor planning and insufficient resources.

Some 6 000 of the 15 000 peacekeepers mandated by the UN Security Council in October have yet to arrive, although disarmament is scheduled to resume in late February.

Still, ordinary Liberians are optimistic that they will be thrown a life-line by donors, led by the United States, which has already indicated it will commit $200m.

"This is an opportunity that we can not afford to miss. The government has to do all it can to convince the donors," civil servant Emmanuel Weaseh told reporters in Monrovia.

"We are the oldest country on the continent, yet we are still crawling while those who came after us are jumping."

- AFP