[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Liberia: UN Peacekeeping

[Alfred Kagan]

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>Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 11:27:04 -0500
>Subject: Liberia: UN Peacekeeping
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>AFRICA ACTION
>Africa Policy E-Journal
>September 28, 2003 (030928)
>                    
>Liberia: UN Peacekeeping
>(Reposted from sources cited below)
>
>The United Nations is expected to assume responsibility for
>peacekeeping in Liberia on October 1, incorporating the
>approximately 3,500 West Africa troops of ECOMIL into a new UNMIL
>operation. News reports indicate that the US offshore force of
>about 2,500 is expected to depart within a few weeks. The 150 US
>marines stationed on the ground to support the West African force
>withdrew at the end of August. West African reinforcements arriving
>the following week included 250 troops from Mali, 250 troops from
>Senegal, and 150 troops from Gambia, which has a population of 1.5
>million, compared to the US population of 290 million.
>
>Washington, however, seems unwilling to make a commitment even to
>match the Gambian troop commitment to Liberia. Worldwide, the US
>ranks 23rd in contributions of troops and civilian police to UN
>peacekeeping operations, with 453 of the total 36,948 deployed as
>of the end of August 2003. Those countries ranking ahead of the
>US in total troop and police contributions include Pakistan,
>Bangladesh, India, and Ghana, each with over 2,000 troops and
>police committed. Among African countries, Kenya, Nigeria, South
>Africa, Zambia, Morocco, and Senegal also each contribute more
>troops to UN missions than does the US. 
>
>Retired US air force general Jacques Paul Klein was appointed the
>head of UNMIL. But non-governmental organizations and other critics
>deplored the failure of his home country to take up its fair share
>of responsibility for addressing continued violence and
>humanitarian needs in Liberia. While the US committed $10 million
>to support the West African force, the resources needed, whether
>for troops or for funds, are far greater. In September the UN
>raised its estimates of humanitarian needs in Liberia from $69
>million to $100 million. Of the $47 million of that needed for
>calendar year 2003, only $ 9 million, roughly 19%, had been raised
>by September 28 [see http://www.reliefweb.int/fts]
>
>UNMIL falls under the regular UN peacekeeping budget, and expects
>to receive troops from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, South Africa,
>Ethiopia, Namibia, and Ireland, as well as West African countries.
>The U.S. owes $529 million in arrears on peacekeeping to the United
>Nations, representing 48% of the peacekeeping arrears from member
>states [see http://www.globalpolicy.org/finance/tables]
>
>+++++++++++++++++end summary/introduction+++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>Security Council Approves 16,000 Peacekeepers
>
>UN Integrated Regional Information Network
>http://www.irinnews.org
>
>September 19, 2003
>
>Abidjan
>
>The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved the
>creation of a 15,000-strong peacekeeping force for Liberia to take
>over from a much smaller West African force which is currently
>struggling to impose peace and security after 14 years of civil
>war.
>
>The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) will be formally created on
>October 1, two weeks before a new broad-based transitional
>government takes power in Monrovia to guide the country to fresh
>elections in October 2005.
>
>UN officials reckon it will take about six months to work up to
>full strength.
>
>UNMIL was given an initial mandate of 12 months to enforce an 18
>August peace agreement between the Liberian government and two
>rebel movements. The Security Council also charged it with helping
>the new transitional government to assert its authority throughout
>the country.
>
>The peacekeepers will be backed up by an international force of
>1,115 civilian police officers.
>
>Retired US air force general, Jacques Paul Klein was appointed head
>of UNMIL, which will be the second largest UN peacekeeping mission
>in the world after the one sent to neighboring Sierra Leone three
>years ago.
>
>Klein was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as his
>Special Representative in Liberia in July. He was formerly head of
>the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
>
>Klein told the Security Council on Tuesday: "We have an obligation
>to assist in putting an end to a cycle of brutality, violence,
>corruption and instability that has destroyed the social fabric of
>Liberian society and has spilled over the borders of Liberia and
>profoundly affected the region."
>
>He said the UN had received offers of troops for Liberia from
>Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Namibia and
>Ireland.
>
>UNMIL will monitor the implementation of the cease-fire between the
>Liberian government, which was headed until last month by warlord
>Charles Taylor, and two rebel groups; Liberians United for
>Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy
>in Liberia (MODEL).
>
>The UN force will assist in the disarmament, demobilization,
>reintegration, and repatriation of thousands of fighters roaming
>the villages of Liberia. It will also and provide security at key
>government installations such as ports and airports, and protect UN
>staff, facilities and civilians.
>
>UNMIL will also assist in humanitarian work and will help to
>enforce respect for human rights "with particular attention to
>vulnerable groups including refugees, returning refugees and
>internally displaced persons, women, children, and demobilized
>child soldiers," the UN said.
>
>It will help the transitional government restructure the police
>force and create a new professional army.
>
>The transitional government is headed by businessman Gyude Bryant,
>who was chosen by the signatories to last month's peace agreement.
>It will replace an interim administration led by Moses Blah. He
>took over the reins of power on 11 August when Taylor was forced by
>international pressure to step down and go into exile in Nigeria.
>
>The Security Council resolution mandates UNMIL to help Bryant's
>administration to rebuild the structure of government in Liberia.
>The country's hospitals and schools are in ruins, its courts have
>ceased to function and its civil servants have been unpaid for
>years.
>
>UNMIL will to develop a new system of courts and prisons and will
>assist the government to reestablish the proper administration of
>natural resources. The country is rich in timber, rubber, diamonds
>and iron ore and is believed to have offshore oil waiting to be
>developed.
>
>The Security Council demanded that all parties cease hostilities
>throughout Liberia and fulfill their obligations under the peace
>and cease-fire agreements signed in Accra. It also demanded that
>they cooperate with UNMIL and ensure the safety, security and
>freedom of movement of UN personnel throughout the country.
>
>UNMIL will also help to coordinate the voluntary return of hundreds
>of thousands of refugees in neighboring countries and internally
>displaced persons within Liberia.
>
>In a report to the Council on Tuesday, Annan said: "With the recent
>political and military developments in Monrovia, the security
>situation in the country continues to improve. Liberia remains
>highly unstable, however, as armed groups, militia and criminal
>elements operate throughout the country."
>
>Annan said the Liberian conflict had unleashed armed groups and
>criminal gangs which had destabilised the entire sub-region.
>
>"The armed conflict in Liberia resulted in serious abuses of human
>rights and humanitarian law, including deliberate and arbitrary
>killings, disappearances, torture, widespread rape and sexual
>violence, arbitrary arrests, forced conscription, use of child
>soldiers, systematic and forced displacement and indiscriminate
>targeting of civilians," Annan said.
>
>Some 250,000 people are believed to have died in war-related
>circumstances in Liberia since 1989 - about one in 12 of the
>country's three million population. At least half were civilian
>non-combatants.
>
>Meanwhile the UN is increasing its emergency appeal for Liberia
>from US $69 million to $100 million to meet increased relief needs,
>the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
>said.
>
>Initially, the UN had asked for $69 million, but raised only half
>of it. The extra funds were needed because relief agencies were now
>able to reach areas of the country under rebel-control that had
>previously been inaccessible, OCHA said.
>
>*************************************************************
>
>Top UN Envoy Calls For Sufficient Personnel And Funds To Resurrect
>Liberia
>
>United Nations (New York)
>
>September 16, 2003
>
>[Excerpts only: Full text is available at:
>  http://allafrica.com/stories/200309160809.html]
>
>Seeking 15,000 United Nations peacekeepers and 900 police to bring
>war-shattered Liberia back from "hellish limbo," the top UN envoy
>for the West African country appealed to the international
>committee today to commit the resources and personnel needed to end
>the "cycle of brutality, violence, corruption and instability."
>
>"Give us the mandate and the tools and I assure you we will do what
>is just and what is right," Jacques Paul Klein, Secretary-General
>Kofi Annan's Special Representative, told the Security Council in
>an open briefing, presenting Mr. Annan's first report since the
>15-member body last month authorized a multinational force for
>Liberia and declared its readiness to set up a follow-on UN
>stabilization force. ...
>
>He said he planned to call an international donors conference, if
>the Council approves the mandate, to help a country where
>three-quarters of the population lives below the poverty line, 85
>per cent are unemployed and many thousands do not have access to
>life's basic necessities of shelter, water, food or even
>rudimentary medical care. ...
>
>TEXT: Briefing to the Security Council by Jacques Paul Klein,
>Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Liberia - New
>York
>
>...
>
>Liberia's massive humanitarian and political crisis calls for
>immediate intervention. Thousands of its citizens do not have
>access to life's basic necessities of shelter, water, food or even
>rudimentary medical care. Their suffering echoes the words of the
>scriptures - " Eloi, Eloi, lamma sabacthani! My God, my God why
>hast Thou forsaken us".
>
>For the past twelve years they have lived in hellish limbo,
>suffering at the whim of warlords and despots, exploited by a
>criminal kleptocracy without help or relief in sight. Their lives
>and their country are held hostage by armed drugged thugs who
>destroy the state and engulfed the region in chaos. The ravages of
>self-centred political and criminal ideologies spread the conflict
>beyond Liberia's borders and caused enormous suffering and havoc in
>the neighboring states.
>
>It is hard to assess the psychological effects of these crimes
>against justice and humanity. The matter becomes more complex when
>we think of it as something which a nation has absorbed into its
>very being - a sort of virus which, through channels of circulation
>- has infected the entire body politic. The result - the fearful
>economic waste; the untimely death of no small part of the
>population; a measure of terror and pain that can only be partially
>conceived and estimated; and the collective national consciousness
>of having been witness to enormous crimes.
>
>This is a fearful legacy to be left to future generations. Life
>becomes cheap; nothing is absolutely safe or sure; deeds of
>injustice and violence become common facts in daily life; and there
>is the ever-present fear of imminent war. Events however revolting,
>are soon forgotten in our often-tempo centric world. "Bernard Shaw
>wrote that the worst sin toward our fellow man is not to hate them,
>but to be indifferent to them - that is the essence of inhumanity.
>
>The decent and good people of Liberia, and there are many of them,
>deserve better from us. Liberia was a founding member of the United
>Nations. It played a key and critical role in the fight against
>fascism - Roberts field was built as an entrepot for allied
>aircraft transiting to Europe; Liberia also produced the majority
>of the free world's rubber supplies that ensured allied victory
>after the plantations of Southeast Asia were overrun. Time and
>again when Liberia was called upon for help or assistance, it gave
>- does it deserve no less now that they need our help?
>
>Today Liberia is not even listed on the UNDP human development
>index. Seventy-five percent of its citizens are living below the
>poverty line; the unemployment rate is eighty-five percent;
>literacy is at thirty-eight percent; fifty percent of the
>population is under fifteen years of age. Added to this is that
>seventy percent of the belligerents are child soldiers, coerced,
>psychologically traumatized, manipulated and exploited by
>self-appointed military leaders. We have a phenomenon not known
>elsewhere in the world where the younger population is less well
>educated than their parents.
>
>We have an obligation to assist in putting an end to this cycle of
>brutality, violence, corruption and instability that has destroyed
>the social fabric of society and has also spilled over the borders
>of Liberia and profoundly affected the region. This effort will
>require dramatic, engaged and bold solutions. Liberia and the
>region need to be stabilized and brought into a larger African
>framework where it can be given the political support, the
>encouragement and mentoring required to help it become a stable and
>self-sustaining member of Africa and the international community.
>
>The first steps have already been taken. We need to pay a special
>tribute to the courage and diligence of President Olusegun Obasanjo
>of Nigeria, Nigerian Foreign Minister Olugemi Adeniji, Dr Mohamed
>Ibn Chambas, General Abdulsalami Abubakar and to the staff who
>supported the recent peace talks in Ghana. ECOWAS has played the
>lead role in creating the conditions for peace in Liberia. Through
>concerted political action and the commitment of troops, ECOWAS has
>underscored its importance and its energy as the regional
>organization committed to ensuring peace, stability and development
>in West Africa.
>
>To build on the efforts of ECOWAS, the international community must
>make a strong commitment, now, to Liberia. From disarmament,
>demobilization and reintegration, establishing a safe and secure
>environment for refugee return; addressing law and order issues;
>gender issues; seriously attacking cross-border criminal
>activities. These efforts if successful will transform Liberia from
>a failed state at war with itself to a nation at peace. Despite the
>multitude of challenges facing us, there is room for hope. Progress
>can be made but it will be expensive, arduous and at times
>frustrating. At a time of many calls on the attention and resources
>of the international community, it is necessary to plan next steps
>not only in Liberia but also in the context of the region on the
>basis of objective analysis.
>
>We cannot be timid and handicap ourselves from the outset of this
>enterprise, as we did in Sierra Leone. The international community
>must be prepared to commit the resources and the personnel needed
>to help the people of Liberia rebuild their country. And, whilst
>the international community must provide the resources, this must
>also be a partnership with the citizens of Liberia for they
>ultimately have the responsibility for ending the conflict and
>healing and rebuilding their nation.
>
>An essential part of the healing and rebuilding process is the
>bringing to justice of those who have committed violations of
>international law. Without justice, there can be no healing.
>Without justice, those who believe that they can act with impunity
>will be tempted to do so again. Without justice, Liberia cannot
>bring to closure this dark past and look to a brighter future.
>Ultimately, until you punish the guilty, you cannot absolve the
>innocent. ...
>
>+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
>
>Date distributed (ymd): 030928
>Region: West Africa
>Issue Areas: +political/rights+ +economy/development+
>  +security/peace+
>
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-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu