Western donors have pledged $520-million to finance the reconstruction of Liberia over the next two years — considerably more than the United Nations and World Bank had asked for.
However, they have virtually ignored a separate UN appeal for $187-million of immediate humanitarian assistance to help the West African country recover from 14 years of civil war.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said as he opened a high-profile donors’ conference for Liberia in New York last Thursday: ”I must remind you that recent humanitarian appeals for Liberia remain largely unfunded.”
He continued: ”Long term reconstruction and short term humanitarian assistance may be separate in concept and in the way they are funded, but ultimately they are closely linked. It will be hard, if not impossible, for Liberians to start rebuilding their country while large numbers of war victims still lack the most basic necessities of life.”
The United Nations had asked delegates to the New York conference to raise $488-million for essential infrastructural work such as the rebuilding of schools, hospitals and roads and the restoration of water and electricity supplies and telephone services.
However, the 5-6 February meeting, which was attended by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, did better than that.
By the time it closed, the participants had pledged $520-million. The United States reiterated its promise to give $200-million, European countries offered $250-million and the World Bank $50-million.
Delegates from more than 90 countries and 40 aid groups applauded as Mark Malloch Brown, the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced the final tally.
However, the US-based advocacy group Refugees International, issued a sober warning that donor response to the UN Consolidated Appeal (CAP) for Liberia, issued in November to cover the immediate needs of the country’s three million population, remained ”woefully inadequate.”
The United Nations and its principal partners in relief work sought $137-million to fund priority programmes such as the disarmament and demobilisation of former combatants, the provision of health services and the immediate reopening of schools throughout the country.
In addition, they asked for $40-million to feed an estimated 500 000 internally displaced people and thousands of refugees from neighbouring countries who have started to return home following the signing of a peace agreement last August.
However, Refugees International said in a statement issued as the donor conference was closing: ”To date less than $5-million our of the $137-million has been pledged towards emergency programmes.
”For example it will cost $6-million to provide education to Liberia’s children, but Unicef has received only 50% of the request. If funding for education does not increase, half of Liberia’s children will be out of school.”
That is a serious consideration in a country where a large percentage of the fighters to be disarmed are child soliders. Many of the country’s seasoned killers are only nine or 10 years old.
No-one knows for certain how many fighters loyal to former president Charles Taylor and the two rebel movements who opposed him will come forward for disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitation (DDR).
But the figures keep going up.
In early December, when the United Nations Mission in Liberia (Unmil) launched a poorly organised disarmament drive that had to be stopped after 10 days, UN officials reckoned there were 38 000 combatants in the three factions.
But at the end of January, the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, estimated there were 48 000 to 58 000.
And in his opening address to the donor conference in New York, the UN Secretary General spoke of 53 000 fighters waiting to hand in their guns.
However, Refugees International complained of a ”weak response” to UN appeals for contributions to finance the DDR programme.
”The UN has requested $50 million, but so far only $9-million is available,” it noted.
Unmil, which now has more than 10 000 peacekeeping troops on the ground, is due to to make a fresh start on disarmament later this month.
No date has been announced so far, but the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest weekly situation report on Liberia that Unmil had selected four sites where former combatants will be urged to hand in their guns and undergo a three-week screening process.
OCHA said one of these would be located near the VOA camp for displaced people on the northern outskirts of the capital Monrovia.
Two would more would be situated in Tubmanburg and Gbarnga, towns in northwestern Liberia which are strongholds of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) rebel movement.
The fourth would be in Buchanan, a port city 120km southeast of Monrovia, which is controlled by the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model) rebel movement.
One problem exercising the minds of relief workers and diplomats is that the cash package of $300 on offer to each former combatant is only a third of the $900 planned for a similar DDR programme that is due to get under way in neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire later this year.
UN officials say privately they fear that many Liberian gunmen may drift into Cote d’Ivoire to seek better terms or stage disturbances within Liberia to demand more cash from Unmil.
At least nine people were killed during riots by fighters demanding cash up front for handing in their guns during the abortive Unmil disarmament drive in December. – Irin