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Liberia-Sierra Leone: International Community Needs to Commit for Long Haul to
Stop Return to War

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
December 9, 2004
Posted to the web December 9, 2004
Dakar
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.

   

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