[allAfrica.com] [allAfrica.com_Top_Headlines] We're In For More Hardships The Analyst (Monrovia) NEWS October 11, 2004 Posted to the web October 11, 2004 By Abdullah Dukuly Liberians have endured civil war and severe effects of UN sanctions. But can they overcome the hardships in the face of government's failure to meet UN conditions? "The Security Council's refusal to lift the sanction on timber trade has dashed our hopes for a better standard of living", exclaims Boakai Kpehe, a woodcutter who - like thousands of others - has his primary means of support from the timber industry. "Why should the whole nation be punished for the acts of few people who created the mess? And why is it that the caretaker government is not able to create the environment needed for the lifting UN sanctions?" A great many ordinary people do probably raise these questions but feel powerless to do anything about the exacerbating hardships that have been brought on them by the UN sanctions. Fourteen years of intermittent fighting have virtually dispossessed most of the country's 3.5 million people of their belongings. The primary means of support for many of them have been in the diamonds and logging businesses. But the Security Council banned the exports of these materials in 2001 because they were being used allegedly by the government of former president Charles Taylor to fuel instability in neighboring states. Although Taylor (who has denied UN charges of guns-for-diamonds trade with former rebels in neighboring Sierra Leon) has since taken Nigeria's offer of asylum, the bans remain enforced with pirates accused of plundering diamond, rubber and timber to support their war ventures. Liberia is endowed with natural resources, including the iron ore - the country's predominant economic sector which, although still idle since the outbreak of the war in 1989, contributed to 25 per cent of the gross domestic product (gdp) and employed up to 25,000 people. Although there is now a semblance of peace, thanks to last year's formation of a power sharing transitional government that will run the country until election next year, analysts say prospects for the use of these resources for the growth of the country remain bleak The cash-trapped government, which currently feeds on port charges and other taxes levied in Monrovia, recently began to identify the roadmap for the exploitation of the country's resources that were being plundered by armed gangs violating UN sanctions. Gyude Bryant is the transitional chairman. Along with Jacques Klein, special representative of the UN, who said last year of "too much risk that the illegal trade in weapons, diamonds and timber will continue" as long as tens of thousands of fighters remain armed in the country", he has vainly pleaded with the Security Council to lift the sanctions, saying the conditions in Liberia were now rife. But the Council wants the government to do more: extend its authority throughout the country and design a formula by which resources can be used for the benefit of the people. Civil authority is gradually being extended as UNMIL (United Nations Mission in Liberia) takes its time to disarm thousands of former rebels. "But as we await the government to extend its authority throughout the country" says a political commentator, "great humanitarian and socio economic hardships will continue be with us as a result of the UN sanctions". With a little more than 1.4 million of the population living in abject poverty, he warns that the continuous UN ban on timber exports, the second largest sector of the economy, will "exacerbate more hardships on the already impoverished nation". Previous UN statistics show that a ban on logging activities probably caused the loss of some 10,000 well-paid jobs. With an average of nine dependents for each employed person and a probably higher than average number of dependents per employed person in this more affluent economic sector, a figure of 90,000 to 95,000 people losing their primary means of support could be expected, the report said. Liberia was one of Africa's more economically advanced countries. Its gross domestic product (GDP) was about US$485 and life expectancy at birth exceeded 54 years. Economic activity in pre-war Liberia was heavily concentrated on the production and export of iron ore, natural rubber, timber and crops, including coffee, cocoa and palm products. A large traditional sector was engaged primarily in subsistence agriculture, artisan mining and small-scale commercial activities. But this tiny West African state is now a desperately poor nation with more than 80 percent of the people living below the poverty line (less than 1 United States dollar) a day, while 15-20 percent are living in absolute poverty (less than 50) United States cents) per day. The statistics indicate that 90 per cent of the workforce is unemployed and the United Nations sanctions - coupled with continued armed conflicts - pose another headache. Food production and other agricultural output have plummeted as people abandoned villages in some of the most fertile areas to marauding armed gangs. The collapse of the iron ore mining at the height of the war made the timber industry the second largest sector of the economy. Available records show that 26 timber companies employed an estimated 10,000 people and the timber exports earned about US50 million in 2000 and were expected to value US$70 million in 2001 "The government is doing virtually nothing to ease the difficulties faced by people. As such, poverty has been entrenched in Liberia with majority of the population drinking water from wells, streams and rivers and lack of access to electricity and pipe born water", a social worker told our reporter Saturday. Liberia's timber industry generates millions of United States dollars every year in fees, taxes and royalties for the government. It provides health and education services to their employees, their families and the local communities in which they operate. Some members of the logging association said a ban on timber exports has eliminated these services. The timber firms also constructed and maintained some of the roads in remote parts of Liberia. Accordingly, a timber export ban would affect the maintenance and further construction of such roads and thus affect road access to communities in isolated rural areas. This is what is happening now, social workers point out, pointing at the deplorable condition of the nation's roads. Meantime, the UN ban saw the closure of timber firms. Liberia's largest timber industry, the Malaysian owned Oriental Timber Corporation (OTC) suspended operations and most of the company's facilities have been vandalized. The US$50 million company, the largest in Africa, was at the center of allegations in international circles that it was importing arms and ammunition for Taylor under the guise of bringing in heavy equipment for logging activities, a charge OTC Public Relation's Officer Baccus Matthews strongly denied. At the same time, environmentalists fear that the rapid depletion of Liberia's forest risk parts of the country being a desert state or Savannah land if nothing is done to check the wonton destruction of the rainforest. A recent probe into Liberia's "destructive logging practices" reveals that the country now has nothing but an "environmentally unfriendly road construction, the extremely high waste of timber and timber products and environmental and human rights abuse" Under the caption, "Plunder, the Silent Destruction of Liberia's Rainforest", environmentalists decried "the corrupt practices in the (forest) industry, fostered", as they said, " by the lack of transparency "   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2004 The Analyst. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================