The United Nations is drawing up an ambitious plan to rebuild Liberia’s infrastructure and government which would see the creation of a 15 000-strong peacekeeping force to disarm all the warring factions, The Washington Post said Friday.
The plan, which is being discussed by chief UN envoy Jacques Paul Klein with potential troop donors and the United States, would also call for arresting Liberian President Charles Taylor if he does not leave the country soon.
The new UN mission would move into Liberia in November, replacing the recently deployed US-supported West African force, and reach full strength by February, said the daily, quoting US and UN officials.
A potentially major stumbling block to the UN project is its financing, since the United States would have to provide one fourth of its projected cost of $500-million, a senior UN official said.
Apparently confirming the United States’ financial concerns, one US official described Klein’s plan to The Washington Post as ”way out ahead of the game,” adding: ”It’s going to cost a lot of money and the United States would have to pay a large portion of it.”
In its planning for Liberia, the daily said, UN officials want to avoid the pitfalls of their failed operation in neighbouring Sierra Leone three years ago.
”We are working on a fairly sizable operation … We should not be rushed unduly into deploying a force that is not ready because it will come back to haunt us,” said Hedi Annabi, head of the UN peacekeeping operations department.
Another problem in the deployment of a major UN operation in Liberia is that the potential troop and money donors would first like to see a peace settlement among the warring factions and a continuing US presence after the United Nations takes over, the daily said.
”It doesn’t have to do with firepower, it has to do with evacuation,” another senior UN official said. ”The Dutch said if things get ugly and we need to get out badly, we need to know the United States is there.”
While the size and scope of a UN mission in Liberia cannot be measured until the fighting has stopped and a clear assessment can be made of the situation in the war-torn country, UN officials have outlined a preliminary plan calling for far-reaching reconstruction efforts and an ambitious peacekeeping force.
”Liberia has been destroyed over the last 15 years,” another senior UN official said. ”It’s ground zero.” – Sapa-AFP