|
|
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: UN envoy calls for 5,000 peacekeepers for Monrovia
MONROVIA, 15 August 2003 (IRIN) - Jacques Klein, the UN special envoy to Liberia, said on Friday more than 5,000 peacekeeping troops would be needed to guarantee security in the capital Monrovia and it could be several weeks before conditions were settled enough to send relief workers into the interior.
At present there is just one batallion of fewer than 800 Nigerian soldiers in Monrovia, the vanguard of a West African peacekeeping force called ECOMIL which will eventually number 3,250. Aircraft chartered by the United States began flying in a second batallion from Nigeria on Friday, a day later than scheduled.
The Nigerians are backed up by 200 US marines from a naval task force offshore. The Americans could be seen on Friday patrolling Roberts international airport and Monrovia's sea port, which was handed over to ECOMIL by rebel forces on Thursday.
There are 2,300 marines embarked on the task force and attack helicopters from the ships patrol regularly at low level over Monrovia. But President George Bush has so far been reluctant to deploy US troops onshore in large numbers.
Visiting a UN ship, which docked on Friday to bring in vital fuel, telecommunications equipment and high energy biscuits, Klein, a former US air force general, said: "We don't have enough ECOMIL. We have 770 Nigerian soldiers in Liberia whereas there are over 30,000 police in New York.
"We desperately need more boots on the ground," Klein said. "The minimum for Monrovia will be 5,000."
Wearing his old air force bomber jacket and waving a cigar stub in his hand, Klein said proper security was vital for the humanitarian community to be able to distribute food, restore supplies of clean drinking water and provide medical care in this West African country devastated by 14 years of civil war.
So, he added, it could be several weeks before aid workers moved in large numbers into the rebel-occupied interior, where two thirds of Liberia's three million war-weary people live.
"Security here now is everything. because without security, we cannot unload ships, we cannot distribute food, we cannot escort humanitarian agencies to distribution points," Klein stressed.
The UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Liberia said he would like to see a "mercy ship" sent to Monrovia which could serve as floating hospital for complicated cases of surgery. At present, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) runs Monrovia's overworked John F Kennedy hospital, while Medecins Sans Frontieres staffs a couple of makeshift clinics.
The Liberian government and the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement were supposed to have withdrawn all their fighters from Monrovia by midday on Thursday, when they handed over control of security in the disputed city of one million people to the international peacekeepers.
But more than 24 hours later, government troops and militiamen were still manning check points in the city centre and on the road to the airport, while LURD fighters cruised up and down Bushrod Island, where the port is situated, in pickups, camouflaged four-wheel drive vehicles and battered yellow taxis.
However, one LURD commander on Bushrod Island, Adjudant General Ansu Kwesiah, told IRIN: "I think we have got 85 to 90 percent of our forces out of this place....the rest are on their way."
There was only a minimal Nigerian military presence on the streets. White painted armoured personnel carriers were positioned at key bridges, but the soldiers manning these checkpoints made no attempt to check the movements of armed rebels or civilians carrying sacks of food looted from the Freeport in wheelbarrows and on their heads.
Most of the 10,000 tonnes of UN World Food Programme (WFP) stocks which been stored at warehouses in Monrovia Freeport disappeared during the past two months of fighting in the capital. Much of the food was stolen in an orgy of looting by LURD fighters and thousands of starving civilians in the two days before the port was handed over to the Nigerians.
IRIN correspondents visiting the port saw container loads of golden maize meal spilt onto the ground like the sand of an artificial beach. WFP workers said there was still about 2,500 tonnes left in sacks in warehouses. However, WFP's entire fleet of more than 20 trucks had been looted or destroyed in the fighting, they added
While deploring the wholesale looting of WFP food, UN officials noted privately that this week's massive theft had at least managed to distribute food quickly and effectively to many of those who needed it most.
In Monrovia markets, the price of a cup of rice slumped to 55 US cents on Friday from over US $2 just a few days earlier.
Klein said several WFP ships were on their way to Liberia with more food to feed an estimated 200,000 to 450,000 starving people in Monrovia who have been displaced from their homes by the recent fighting.
WFP officials said the first food ship was due to dock in Monrovia on August 24 bringing 2,200 tonnes of pulses, vegetable oil and corn soya blend from Freetown in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, peace talks in the Ghanaian capital Accra, made slow progress as provisional president Moses Blah met with the leaders of the two rebel movements that now control 90 percent of Liberia for the second day running to thrash out the remaining obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement.
UN officials said Klein would fly to Accra on Saturday to try and help the negotiations move forward.
The Econonomic Community of West African States, which is brokering the two-month-old peace talks, had been hoping for an agreement to be signed this weekend. That would pave the way for Blah to hand over power to an interim government, headed by a civilian unconnected to any of the warring parties, whichh would organise fresh elections in two years' time.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Food Security, (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
[ENDS]
The material contained on this Web site comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post any item on this site, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All graphics and Images on this site may not be re-produced without the express permission of the original owner. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
