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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: Peace talks expected to be concluded on Monday
ACCRA, 17 August 2003 (IRIN) - United Nations officials and West African mediators facilitating peace talks in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, said they expected a comprehensive peace agreement between Liberia's warring factions to be signed on Monday.
"I am leaving Accra for Monrovia tomorrow shortly after the signing ceremony together with some of the main players in the Liberian conflict," Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Liberia, Jacques Paul Klein told IRIN on Sunday.
"Should they refuse to sign, I will still go back to Monrovia with them," Klein said. "I will keep them together in a room until they see the urgency in signing this document. They have been too comfortable here in Ghana."
For over two months, the Liberian peace talks have been characterised by frequent delays and disagreements between the various stakeholders, especially between the government of Liberia and two rebel movements.
A signing ceremony scheduled for Saturday was put off when both rebel groups, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), expressed "serious disagreements" over power-sharing roles in the proposed two-year transitional government.
Klein, who is in Ghana to facilitate the peace process, described the situation in Liberia, where 85 percent of the population live in abject poverty and 70 percent of the members of warring factions are armed children under the age of 18, "as traumatic and saddening".
"I am bringing in an assessment team of about 25 experts to deal with various issues concerning disarmament, security and rebuilding health and social service infrastructures," Klein said.
"We will forward our proposals to the UN Secretary-General immediately. That should form the basis of getting a UN Mandate on Liberia approved," he told journalists in Accra on Sunday.
The UN mandate would be the blueprint on the roles that the world body will be playing in the restructuring of Liberia over the next two years, he said.
He added that donor agencies were prepared to aid initial demobilization of the warring factions with US $25 million while another $25 million will go towards reopening electricity and water services in the war-ravaged country.
He told IRIN that any future deployment of UN peacekeepers would depend on the UN mandate on Liberia, which would first confer UN peacekeeping status on the West African peacekeeping force in Liberia (ECOMIL) and later solicit more troops and other humanitarian services from member countries.
"This will however take some time," Klein noted, adding that it will not be easy. "Remember, we are going to be in Liberia for a long haul. But we have to look at the humanitarian and security issues first," Klein said.
Earlier on Sunday, LURD officials said they were backing down on demands to be given the Vice-Chairman and Speaker positions within the two-year interim government.
"Once again, LURD is making a major concession by giving up the vice-chairmanship to the political parties for the sake of peace," George Dweh, a senior LURD Official told IRIN.
"We are however asking that the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly be voted for instead of being allotted," he said.
"For the sake of equity, we are also asking that all parties get equal seats in the Legislative Assembly," Dweh added.
Meanwhile, Liberia's belligerents on Sunday signed a declaration in Accra with the international community to allow the immediate and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid into territories under their control.
They also agreed to guarantee the safety and security of all humanitarian and international agencies operating in areas under their control.
"This agreement goes into effect at midnight on Tuesday in order to allow the warring factions to instruct and authorize their men on the ground to respect this declaration. This will be the warring factions' first challenge in dealing with the United Nations," Klein said.
In a separate development, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the Executive Secretary of the West African regional body, ECOWAS, said in Accra that a comprehensive disarmament programme would be pursued in Liberia in order to rid the country of arms that had contributed to the instability in the sub-region.
He said 50 percent of the small arms in the sub-region were in Liberia while 90 percent of the irregular armed groups operating in the sub-region were also traced to that country.
"Because of the sub-regional implications of these arms, disarmament must therefore be effective," Chambas said, adding that ECOWAS would work closely with the UN and the international community to address this problem.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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