Military

DATE=7/4/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=LIBERIA/REFUGEES (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-305063

BYLINE=DALE GAVLAK

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The United Nations refugee agency says it is starting Friday to evacuate thousands of Sierra Leonean refugees from Liberia in one of its most challenging rescue operations in recent times. V-O-A's Dale Gavlak has details from the agency's headquarters in Geneva.

TEXT: The refugee agency, U-N-H-C-R, says it has begun an emergency evacuation of thousands of Sierra Leonean refugees, who are desperate to leave war-ravaged Liberia.

Agency Spokesman Ron Redmond says that, provided the current cease-fire in Liberia holds, U-N-H-C-R's ship will carry at least 300 refugees on each voyage out of the Liberian capital, Monrovia, back to Sierra Leone. He says the vessel should be able to make the 30-hour trip every four days.

/// REDMOND ACT ///

For the first voyage, U-N-H-C-R staff in Monrovia have identified more than 360 refugees, including the most vulnerable among some one-thousand who had been seeking shelter in and around our compound in the city. Given the desperation among many Liberians and others who want to get out of Monrovia, we have also asked local authorities to provide security around the port, while we do the loading of this first ship.

/// END ACT ///

There are about 15-thousand Sierra Leoneans in Liberia. Mr. Redmond says Liberians and refugees alike are living in abysmal conditions. He says U-N-H-C-R is finding it increasingly difficult to provide help, after its warehouses were looted and vehicles stolen.

Another United Nations agency, the World Health Organization, says a health crisis is erupting in Liberia, with cholera and other diarrheal diseases, measles and malaria on the increase.

W-H-O Spokeswoman Christine McNabb says the agency is appealing for 200-thousand dollars' worth of funds and supplies to avert an even larger crisis, particularly in Monrovia.

/// MCNABB ACT ///

There is about 97-thousand people, at least, who are displaced within the city in several camp centers, schools, wherever they can gather. What we are seeing are terrible sanitary conditions continuing in many of these areas. Now, we see in the last two weeks alone well over 400 cases of cholera.

/// END ACT ///

Hundreds have died in the latest fighting in Monrovia. Liberia has been wracked by almost 14 years of unbroken conflict. President Bush has insisted that Liberia's President Charles Taylor step down as the first move toward stabilizing the country. (SIGNED)

NEB/DG/ALW/TW