Liberia was poised on Monday for the inauguration of a transitional government after 14 years of almost uninterrupted civil war, but ordinary people had little to cheer about as hardships persisted.
”Nothing has changed, the situation is even worse for us here. Since (president) Charles Taylor left, we are still deep in misery, starving,” said 51-year-old Edward Konuwa as he sat on the steps of Monrovia’s Masonic temple.
Since last June, at the height of a rebel siege of the capital Monrovia, the landmark temple has served as a camp for thousands of displaced persons.
Taylor — a former warlord who sparked a civil war that raged in the west African country from 1990 until he was elected president in 1997 — stood down on August 11 and went into exile, ending a four-year rebellion against him.
The disgraced president’s departure paved the way for talks between rebels and a caretaker government led by his former deputy, Moses Blah. Those talks led to a peace pact and to the naming of businessman Gyude Bryant to lead an interim government tasked with guiding Liberia to elections in two years.
Even as they waited hopefully for the transition government to be set up, war-weary Liberians admitted they knew little about Bryant, due to be sworn in on Tuesday — the day Taylor’s mandate would have ended.
”Everyone is waiting for the transition government to be put in place, and for (UN) Blue Helmets to deploy throughout the country, but we know it is going to take time,” said a trader in Monrovia.
A week before Taylor stood down, west African peacekeepers began deploying in Liberia and helped restore peace in the capital, battered by months of fighting.
Early this month the west African peacekeepers were incorporated into a UN peacekeeping force, which is due to deploy in the countryside, where sporadic fighting has continued despite the August peace pact.
The peacekeepers are currently concentrated in large cities, leaving outlying rural areas vulnerable to fighting, with many parts still under rebel control.
”For us it is completely impossible to leave. I cannot go back to my village in Cape Mount county as it is not safe,” Konuwa said.
”I’ll only go back when I will see real signs of the return of security there. I hope like everybody here that with the international presence, the situation will improve.”
Another Monrovia landmark that has been converted to provide temporary housing for displaced civilians is the Samuel K. Doe sports stadium.
More of 50 000 people are still crammed into the stadium, where sanitary conditions are appalling, since the rebel siege of Monrovia began in June.
Many of those housed at the stadium are from areas controlled by the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model).
Most say they have neither sufficient food nor medical care, even though several international aid organisations, including UN agencies, are operating in the capital.
”We have no food, no medicine, there has not been a single food distribution since August,” said Johnson Pewu, one of the displaced sheltering in the stadium.
”Many children are sick, our girls have to sleep around for food,” he said. ”Yesterday we found a small baby in the stairs. The parents couldn’t feed him and just abandoned him,” he said.
Despite the pervading misery, Liberians say they are happy that relative calm has returned to the capital, that armed bands no longer roam the streets, that they can venture outside without having to worry about stray bullets.
Indeed, the capital has changed in the two months since Taylor left. At least the shops have reopened, and UN peacekeepers have replaced trigger-happy militias at roadblocks. – Sapa-AFP