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LIBERIA-SIERRA LEONE: International community needs to commit for long haul to stop return to war - OCHA IRIN

Wednesday 19 January 2005


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LIBERIA-SIERRA LEONE: International community needs to commit for long haul to stop return to war

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

DAKAR, 9 Dec 2004 (IRIN) - Liberia and Sierra Leone risk tipping back into conflict if the international community does not commit for the next 15 to 25 years with a fresh approach to restore security and civil freedoms, according to leading think tank, the International Crisis Group.

"The interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone are failing to produce states that will be stable," the ICG said in a report published on Wednesday. "A fresh strategy is needed if both are not to remain shadow states, vulnerable to new fighting and state failure."

The ICG criticised donors for not handing over promised and much needed-funds and said that post-war efforts were veering off course, as UN peacekeepers simply ticked off the standard elements in a one-size-fits-all recipe for peace.

"There is no simple and quick nation-building conveyor belt. If the cycle of 'collapse, partial recovery, new collapse' is to be avoided, the international community needs to stay patiently involved with both countries for a generation, not for a brief post-conflict transition capped off by a first election," the Brussels-based group warned.

Both Sierra Leone and Liberia witnessed brutal civil wars that spanned the 1990s and the images of young and often drugged-up combatants toting machetes and guns and mutilating innocent victims touched a nerve around the world.

The new ICG report, entitled "Rebuilding Failed States" (www.crisisweb.org), called for action to be taken by the United Nations, the British and American governments, international donors, and politicians and citizens in both West African countries to consolidate a real and meaningful peace.

It said judicial institutions needed not only to be repaired but reformed, new armies needed to be trained properly to win back the trust of civilians who often saw them as tainted.

Ordinary civilians should be pushing through to the frontlines of politics, and economic resources, be they diamonds and timber or government funds, should be put beyond the reach of criminals.

Sixteen months of peace for Liberia

Liberia's 14-year conflict finally drew to a close when the warring parties signed a peace deal in August 2003. Now a transitional government, made up of the three armed factions that fought the war and civilian society groups, is working to lead the country to free and fair elections in October 2005.

But infrastructure in the heavily-forested nation remains shattered, with roads still impassable and no power grid or water and sewerage systems in the capital, Monrovia.

Western diplomats have already blasted obstructional elements within Liberia's interim government who are more bothered about the personal gains they can pocket as "gatekeepers" to various offices, than about moving the country forward. The ICG said next year's polls would be a crunch test.

"Many observers fear that the presidential election in October 2005 will be seen as an all-or-nothing affair, with the losers thoroughly excluded from power and thus left contemplating resumption of war," the report said.

Hoards of idle former fighters and hidden caches of arms which escaped a UN-led disarmament programme would provide a prime recruiting pool, and so the ICG urged foreign donors to stump up immediately the US$ 42 million needed to reintegrate ex-combatants and help them adjust to civilian life.

The money is part of US$ 276 million that was promised by donors but has yet to be paid. The funds for ex-combatants are crucial, especially given the outcome of a flawed disarmament and reintegration programme in 1997 during a pause in Liberia's civil war.

Former fighters need to be reintegrated back into civil society but funds lacking

"The result was... continued pillage and abuse of the population and ultimately a resumption of civil war," the ICG noted. "Donors who promised money in February 2004 must disburse it immediately if Liberian ex-combatants are not to be let down again."

The group also urged the United Nations Security Council to maintain timber sanctions on Liberia until after the elections, despite pleas from Liberia's interim leader, Gyude Bryant, to lift the embargo. And the international community should take over the collection of revenues from ports, airports, customs and raw materials exports, to make corruption more difficult, the ICG said.

It called for no time to be wasted. "The clock is ticking for Liberia. After the October elections it will be much more difficult to take innovative approaches, as it already is in Sierra Leone."

Sierra Leone turmoil further in past

Sierra Leone is further along the peace path. Fighting ended almost three years ago and elections have already been held. President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was overwhelmingly re-elected in May 2002, four months after the war was officially declared over.

Although peacekeepers from the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) have restored security across the country, they have delayed pulling out of the former British colony completely.

"Fears that the peace would not hold have prompted a decision to maintain a residual force of 3,500 soldiers and military observers until at least the end of June 2005," the ICG noted.

Life in Freetown is still hard for many

With Sierra Leone still mired at the bottom of the UN's Human Development Index and citizens not expected to live much beyond their 34th birthday, the outlook is bleak.

And the ICG says the efforts put into security, now have to be matched in the economic and political spheres where the sparks that caused the decade-long civil war have not been firmly extinguished. To do this, a long-term commitment is essential.

Residents in the capital Freetown bemoan the fact that living conditions there have barely improved, that travelling elsewhere in the country is difficult because roads are so dire and that corruption still plagues the country.

Many normal state functions, particularly the provision of healthcare, are being carried out by non-governmental organisations and not the government.

"Institutions are focused on finding new sources of donor revenue, rather than managing at hand in a way that would develop autonomy and self-sufficiency. Policy is driven by what donors will fund," the ICG report said.

The consequences of either Sierra Leone or Liberia sliding back to war would be disastrous for an-already turbulent West African region.

Cote d'Ivoire, once the regional powerhouse, is currently reeling from the latest cycle of violence in its two year crisis. And analysts say Guinea, which shares borders with both Liberia and Sierra Leone, could ignite any day as the country crumbles under President Lansana Conte.

[ENDS]

Other recent LIBERIA-SIERRA LEONE reports:

WFP urges donors not to forget the survivors of past conflicts, 13/Jan/05

Ex-combatants to be repatriated and pardoned, 7/Oct/04

Sierra Leone to send back 500 detained Liberian fighters, 28/Sep/04

Taylor’s lawyers file petition against special court, 16/Mar/04

Hopes of family reunion as Sierra Leone refugees go home, 3/Mar/04

Other recent Democracy & Governance reports:

YEMEN: Development agencies support government anti-corruption drive, 18/Jan/05

GUINEA: Teachers end strike after winning pay rise, 18/Jan/05

AFRICA: Conference supports call for debt write-offs, 18/Jan/05

ZIMBABWE: No word on whether MDC will drop poll boycott, 18/Jan/05

ZIMBABWE: Call for independent review of voters' roll, 17/Jan/05

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