wfn.org | CWS delegation visit prompts quick aid to refugees in Sierra Leone

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Note #7357 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

29-July-2002
02270

CWS delegation visit prompts quick aid to refugees in Sierra Leone

Presbyterian Victor Hsu Meets with Liberia's President Charles Taylor

by Carol Fouke-Mpoyo
Church World Service

NEW YORK, NY - Just returning from a three-week peace delegation in West Africa, Presbyterians Victor Hsu and Moses Ole Sakuda say findings of the Church World Service tour are already galvanizing emergency response to the troubled region by the international humanitarian aid agency and its partners.

Mr. Hsu, of Waldwick, N.J., and Mr. Ole Sakuda, of Hamilton, N.J., were art of the eight-member delegation that went to Guinea, The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Liberia July 2-18 in response to an invitation from church councils in the four neighboring countries.  Mr. Hsu, of the PCUSA, is Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of Church World Service.  Mr. Ole Sakuda, a Maasai from Kenya active at Princeton Presbyterian Church and a member of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, is CWS Associate Director for Mission Relationships and Witness.

Led by the Rev. John L. McCullough, CWS Executive Director, the delegation immersed itself in the people's struggles and hopes in a region battered by poverty and civil wars that have spilled refugees across one another's borders.  Church World Service is the ecumenical arm of 36 U.S. Protestant and Orthodox denominations, including the PCUSA, working with partners in more than 80 countries to provide emergency response, development and refugee assistance.

Open conflict between rebel and government forces in Liberia has sent tens of thousands of Liberians fleeing for safety across the border to Sierra Leone in recent weeks.  Based on the immediate needs the delegation is reporting from its visit, CWS is shipping more than $100,000 in supplies for Liberian refugees in and around Freetown, Sierra Leone. The shipment includes CWS blankets, health and baby kits along with additional supplies donated by CWS partner Lutheran World Relief. 

Concurrently, CWS is seeking to raise an additional $100,000 to support the efforts of CWS partners, including the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone (CCSL), the United Brethren in Christ and the Baptist Convention of Sierra Leone, in caring for this new influx of refugees.

Funds raised also will help Sierra Leoneans displaced during that country's devastating, 11-year civil war get back on their feet.  The war ended in January 2002.

In Sierra Leone, Mr. Ole Sakuda said, "The experience to go out and see the devastation and the destruction and again to see the hope and the spirit of rebuilding, picking up the rubble of destruction, is a story that the world needs to know."

Meeting with an interreligious group of church leaders in Sierra Leone, Mr. Ole Sakuda commented, "We've heard a lot about what the United Nations is doing in this country. The United Nations counts its operation as a success. We need to go beyond that story," he asserted, "and go to the story of the people of Sierra Leone, the uniqueness about these people that the world has not yet heard or experienced."

Mr. Ole Sakuda commended the interreligious group and churches there, saying their ability to "speak in one voice is a story the world needs to hear, too."

He tells of visiting old diamond and gold mines in Sierra Leone's Kono District and hearing how rebels and, earlier, "foreigners had taken that opportunity and there was nothing left to make those communities better communities." Yet, he saw people who were willing to look "beyond what foreigners had done to their country and try to rebuild their communities and schools.

"With heaviness in my heart," Sakuda told them, "for the wounds inflicted on the people of Sierra Leone, I'm taking back the beauty of how people come together to talk to one another. You have much to teach the world." 

In Sierra Leone, CWS delegate Victor Hsu saw "hope despite much suffering. Hope arising from the beginnings of a return to normalcy." He was heartened, he said, to visit an area on the Guinea border, where the CWS group saw excombatants helping rebuild the destroyed customs house.  
People feel very encouraged by the new government and that the reintegration of ex-combatants is going well.  The general feeling is to make fresh beginnings."

Hsu said, however, he was struck by the enormity of the task of healing in Sierra Leone and "the lack of any resources, the enormity of the lack of durable housing. We were told that the very basic needs aren't being met-food, medicine, just antibiotics. There's no clinic in the Kambia District or WaraWaraYagala chiefdom where we visited."

As Sierra Leone struggles to recover, refugees from active conflict in Liberia continue to pour across the border.  An estimated 25,000 Liberians have entered Sierra Leone since January. As many as 500 border crossings an hour have been reported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), fleeing the conflict between Liberian government forces and the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). 

Reports by the CWS delegation and other sources say many of the Liberian refugees and Sierra Leone's own returnees are ill, require medical attention, and some are in severe need of food. 

On the heels of its peacebuilding delegation, and beyond immediate emergency response action, CWS is accelerating further support plans for West Africa. A team of CWS emergency response and immigration specialists is already on the ground in the troubled region.

Dr. Susanne Riveles, CWS Director of Education and Advocacy for International Justice and Human Rights; Joe Roberson, Director of CWS Immigration and Refugee Programs, and Ivan DeKam, CWS Emergency Response Program, are now visiting councils of churches and partners in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ghana.

They are responding to the CWS peace delegation's accounts of the deep wounds and critical needs that were echoed across much of the West Africa sub-region.  The program team is focusing on issues of refugees and the internally displaced, special needs of women and children affected by conflict, peace and reconciliation, and the long-term needs for trauma care and counseling.
CWS advocacy staff also are arranging visits for members of the delegation to debrief government leaders in Washington, D.C., in the coming weeks, hoping to galvanize more stable financial and political support for the struggling countries.

Peace delegation reports wide range of encounters
CWS' Hsu meets Liberian president Charles Taylor

In an intensive 16-day tour, the CWS delegates traveled across the four-country region, meeting with church councils, government leaders, UN officials and NGO partners, and visiting refugee, IDP and amputee camps and sites destroyed by war. 

In a final press conference July 17 in Monrovia, Liberia's capital city, the delegation decried the "alarming, continuing destabilization" that the region is experiencing. "The crisis situations prevailing in this sub-region and the plight of the people who feel that their basic human rights are severely compromised have become a matter of deep concern," the delegation said.

As other delegation members were beginning to make their way back to the United States, on July 18 Victor Hsu, Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of Church World Service, met with Liberia's President Charles Taylor.

It is estimated that one third of Liberia's population is displaced by fighting between the Liberian military and rebel forces (the LURD).  A flurry of peace conference efforts may hint at reconciliation, but the country's condition remains critical, on top of a debilitated economy and virtually non-existent infrastructure.

Unemployment in Liberia in the formal sector is at 80 percent, U.S. Ambassador to Liberia Bismarck Myrick told the CWS peace delegation on July 15, and many who are employed are not getting paid.  "Illiteracy is at 80 percent," he said.  "There is no central water or electrical systems that work, not even in the capital. Health care facilities are inadequate."

Taylor: "The problem of Liberia is the United States." 

Taylor asserted that "The problem of Liberia is the United States," Hsu reported.  "Taylor asked, 'Why does the U.S. hate us Liberians so much? My people have suffered too much, under both U.S. and UN imposed sanctions.'"

He also charged that the United States has been training Guinean soldiers to infiltrate Liberia.  "Liberia always regarded the U.S. as a big brother, a good friend and ally," Taylor told Hsu. "If the U.S. wants to, it can dramatically change the situation in Liberia immediately."

Taylor told Hsu that he hoped that CWS would convey to the Bush administration the desire of the Liberian government to receive a high level delegation from the U.S., to hold talks on ways and means of improving relations between the two.

Hsu said he replied that the CWS peace delegation would be sharing its report with the Bush administration, members of Congress, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Secretariat of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Hsu said Taylor told him he was "pleased to work with President Kabbah of Sierra Leone" to help bring about peace in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - three countries joined in what is called the Mano River Union. Taylor confirmed that a second meeting of the heads of state of the Mano River Union would be held early in August.
"Taylor's call for a high level meeting with the U.S. is newsworthy," Hsu said after the meeting.  
"The continuing peace process of the Mano River Union is also noteworthy.  Without peace or ceasefire there won't be much effective humanitarian aid outside Monrovia.  And without an urgent ceasefire, fair, open and inclusive elections scheduled for early in 2003 can't be held."

"If Liberia isn't stable the subregion will remain unstable," Mr. Hsu observed.

Delegation meets with Liberian churches, government officials, women's peace group

While in Liberia, the delegation also met with the Liberian Council of Churches' Executive Committee, with Liberia's Foreign Minister Monie Captan, and with government officials working to organize a "Liberian National Conference on Peace and Reconciliation."

The Liberian Christian Women's Peace Initiative used the occasion of a meeting between a broad group of Liberian church leaders and the CWS delegation to issue its own statement asking for an immediate ceasefire by both government and LURD forces. Liberia's interreligious council has been advocating for peace for some time, talking to government and rebel leaders. 

Thousands in Liberian IDP camp don't qualify for food aid

CWS delegation members also visited the Jartondo Town Internally Displaced Persons Camp, a few miles outside of Monrovia.  Mr. Kai Jelly from Lutheran World Federation, the lead agency in the camp, and Ms. Chris Wilson, the camp manager, said most of the 10,000 people there had fled recent fighting in Grand Cape Mount and Bomi counties.  Many of them have been displaced more than five times.

Mr. Jelly described the camp's services: five wells, 28 family latrines, 28 bathhouses, and a monthly food ration brought by the World Food Programme. Then he called the CWS delegation's attention to the camp's biggest problem: People can't get food if they aren't registered, and they can't register unless they have a shelter.

Requiring people to have a shelter - and thus, an address - helps prevent people from making the rounds of several camps, picking up a monthly food ration at each camp.  The World Food Programme delivers food address by address.

But at Jartondo Town camp, there are between 6,000 and 7,000 people without shelter and therefore also without a food ration, Mr. Jelly said.  Some have just arrived, but some have been at the camp for more than three months. Many can't come up with the approximately US $45 to build their shelter. Others, such as the ill or mothers with babies, simply aren't able to build their own shelter.

"This is embarrassing for the Lutheran World Federation," Mr. Jelly admitted.  "We can't go around the World Food Programme's rules, but as a result we have 6,000 to 7,000 hungry people on our hands." 

Delegation finds poverty, suffering in Sierra Leone, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia

"The people of this region have suffered too much," Mr. Ole Sakuda said. Tens of thousands of refugees from Liberia's ongoing civil war are displaced within Liberia or are refugees in Sierra Leone, Guinea and The Gambia.

Sierra Leone is itself struggling to recover from war. Guinea and The Gambia have been spared civil conflict, but their people are desperately impoverished.

The UNHCR withdrew from The Gambia last year, but now that country is experiencing a new influx of refugees from Liberia and from fighting in southern Senegal and has asked the UNHCR to come back, Gambian government officials told the CWS delegation. 

In Guinea, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) staff reports that more than 81,000 Liberians and Sierra Leoneans were in their care by the end of June 2002, with between 600 and 2,000 more Liberians arriving every week.

"But halfway through their budget year, UNHCR had only received between $7 and $8 million in cash and pledges against a $27 million budget," reported Mr. Ole Sakuda. The Christian Council of Guinea is helping with supplementary food, clothing, soap and other necessities.

In Sierra Leone: "Something very evil happened"

Sierra Leone is struggling to balance the need for justice with the need to reintegrate its tens of thousands of ex-combatants, especially the rebels who ravaged the country from north to south, killing, raping, hacking off people's limbs and looting and burning property.

CWS Executive Director McCullough told church leaders there, "Something very evil happened in this country. I'm not using that word lightly," he emphasized. "And your sons did it. You have got to figure out why they did what they did," he urged. "What are the root causes of the frustration, the anger, the disenfranchisement, that caused them to act in such an evil way in respect to their neighbors?"

He continued, "People all across [Sierra Leone] have been traumatized by what happened. And psychologically and socially and emotionally and spiritually they need help; and this is probably the most urgent and pressing issue before this country," he observed, offering Church World Service's expertise in trauma recovery to assist in the healing process.

The war devastated Sierra Leone's economy.  "I lack the words to express how bad things are," U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone Peter Chaveas told the delegation, arguing for sustained U.S. and international attention and input.  "It's going to be a long, hard process to rebuild."

"What's critical," Mr. Ole Sakuda said," is to avoid any naiveti about what it will take for Sierra Leone to consolidate peace.  The country needs, and deserves, economic development, skills and leadership training, and trauma counseling.  The United Nations peacekeeping force should stay until the Sierra Leone government can say confidently that it can ensure security nationwide."

Signs of hope and recovery

But there are signs of recovery and hope in the region, say CWS peace delegation members. In their meetings with the four country's church leaders and other groups, the delegation saw signs of healing and progress.

In Liberia's Siegbeh Town IDP Camp, the Concerned Christian Community, a partner of CWS and the United Church of Christ, is helping new arrivals bridge the system to qualify for food, by building big transit tents that qualify as fixed-location first shelters.

The CCC also has a program for women at the Jartondo IDP Camp, offering rape counseling and training for income generation.  Women in the program are qualifying for food aid, whether they have permanent shelters or not, said Mrs. Mariama Brown, CCC's National Director.

In Sierra Leone, the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone has a strong, diverse program that includes development and environmental health, reintegration of ex-combatants, peacebuilding, advocacy for good governance and national reconciliation with justice, youth development, women's empowerment, communications, HIV/AIDS prevention, children's rights, trauma counseling, church relations, theology, research and much more. 

"Church World Service is interested in supporting the best quality of programs, and CCSL has demonstrated that," Mr. Ole Sakuda said.  She added, "I hope we can be more than funders, but focus on doing something together in an organic relationship between CWS and CCSL.  That will be so much more."

The U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Peter Chaveas, said "the new Kabbah administration "is a government with much more credibility," given its mandate in June elections that were basically "free and fair and almost devoid of violence. This government," Chaveas said, "has five years ahead of it and the prospect to do something."

Guinea continues to welcome streams of refugees, though at a strain its own security. And the six-month-old Christian Council of Guinea, reports the CWS delegation, has a presence and plays a role in society that is already respected by the Guinean government.

"We have to acknowledge the respect that the government has given the church leaders," Mr. Ole Sakuda commented.  "The voice of Anglican Bishop Albert David Gomez, the Christian council's chair, and his presence is respected by the leaders.  I think the CWS visit helped strengthen the role of the Christian Council of Guinea."

In The Gambia, church and government officials are openly working together to prevent the HIV/AIDS pandemic from spreading in that country. 

Summing up the impact of their visit, CWS delegate Father Philip Reed, Society of Missionaries of Africa, said, "In one refugee camp, the question 'Who is my neighbor?' came to mind.  I looked at the refugees there and thought, 'These are my brothers.'"

In a meeting with Liberian church leaders, Hsu said, "We have come because we belong to one human family and we all have the same needs.  If you suffer, we suffer.  If you rejoice, we rejoice.  Together we demonstrate that the churches are united to tackle the major challenges facing this region."
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