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CATHOLIC INFORMATION SERVICE FOR AFRICA (CISA)
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Issue No. 241 b, Thursday, July 24, 2003
------------------------------------

CONTENTS
LIBERIA: Catholic Church Calls for International Intervention
LIBERIA: Help Avert Anarchy, Africa Peace Body Tells International Community
DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE IN FULL ON REQUEST FROM CISA
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LIBERIA: Catholic Church Calls for International Intervention

Following the deepened crisis in Liberia, the Catholic bishops of Liberia
and Sierra Leone have issued a joint statement (Tuesday, July 22, 2003), in
which they called for deployment of an international intervention force in
Liberia.

Full text of the statement, courtesy of Zenit, follows below. (CISA)

* * *

We, the Archbishop of Monrovia, Michael Francis, Bishop Giorgio Biguzzi of
Makeni (Sierra Leone) and Bishop Patrick Daniel Koroma of Kenema (Sierra
Leone) join together with one voice at this time of crisis to call for help
from the United States and the International Community in restoring peace
in Liberia and the West African region.

We believe that the path to permanent peace lies in the immediate
deployment of an international intervention force. Unless urgent action is
taken, we fear that the current violence in Liberia will escalate, risking
the descent once again of the West African region into war.

While President George Bush considers the nature of the United State's
response to the pleas of help from the Liberian people, lives are being
lost; so we strongly urge him to commit fully to rebuilding peace in
Liberia and the West African region. We remind the President of our shared
history and the close relationship that Liberia and the United States have
shared in the past.

For too long the children of West Africa have lost the precious days of
childhood to war, for too long they have carried guns and far too many have
lost their parents, their homes and their education to war. An enforced
ceasefire, followed by complete enforced disarmament overseen by an
international peace enforcement mission, is the only way that Liberia can
start the journey towards peace. It is only through these actions that the
children of Liberia can face the future with hope, not fear.

The United States and the international community are running out of time
to prevent a disaster for the entire West African region.

We urge President Bush to immediately commit US forces to a peace
enforcement mission, while promising long term support to rebuilding a
stable Liberia.

We speak together with one voice on behalf of the millions of silent
victims both living and dead of war in West Africa.

MONSIGNOR MICHAEL FRANCIS, Archbishop of Monrovia and President of the
Inter-Religious Council of Liberia.

MONSIGNOR BIGUZZI, Bishop of Makeni (Sierra Leona), and former President of
the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone.

MONSIGNOR KOROMA, Bishop of Kenema (Sierra Leona)

LIBERIA: Help Avert Anarchy, Africa Peace Body Tells International Community

Following its 14-year old bloody war, Liberia is now a nation in shambles,
in need of effective planning and long-term commitment. To forestall a
serious crisis in the West African country, the international community
must step in before entrusting leadership again to local elites, and commit
itself to taking the country through a period of reconstruction, like they
did in Mozambique and now in Sierra Leone, a West African regional peace
organization has warned.

"If nothing is done to rescue Liberia now, warned a report issued by the
West African Network for Peace-building (WANEP), there could follow a
worst-case scenario, which is catastrophic and one that could dent
America's and by extension the international community's image.

History would record that once again our civilized world, governed by
self-interest, has sat supinely to see another Rwanda -one that could have
cost them minimum effort to avert. In addition, efforts of the French and
the British in Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone, respectively, could be
effectively undermined by instability in Liberia," said the Policy Brief
issued by the West Africa Early Warning and Response Network (WARN), one of
the six major programs of WANEP.

The 17-page Policy Brief, dated July 10, 2003, is entitled 'Liberia: The
Last Straw for Peace or Total Anarchy'. It was sent to CISA by WANEPs
Program Director, Mr Emmanuel Habuka Bombande, and is available in full at
CISA for those who wish to have it (please see below for an outline and
other details).

For the first time in the history of the conflict and Taylor's seven-year
misrule, civil groups in Liberia are bold and daring to openly call for
Taylor to step down. Even the heartless murderers of President Taylor can
no longer quench such courage. Liberians and the international community
have woken up, WANEP said.

Civil society groups in the country, led by women's groups who have been
mobilized by WANEP's Women in Peace-building Network (WIPNET), remain
undaunted in their demand for lasting peace. The women have maintained
their protest for more than 14 weeks now, WANEPs Brief said.

"More hands-on will be required, even if this means having some members of
the international community serving as counterparts for a number of years
in government ministries and key commissions and agencies," the report
said. "Liberia will need this before its elites can be trusted again with
the full running of their nation-state."

The Policy Brief addressed relevant aspects that the international
community, especially the International Contact Group (ICGL) on Liberia and
the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS), could consider in
order to make progress in talks for peace in Liberia, held in Accra, Ghana.
Among these elements were the critical issues that militate against peace,
the stakeholders' agenda, interests and behaviours, possible scenarios, and
policy options.

The Brief termed the indictment of Liberia's President Charles Taylor by a
United Nations-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone as "a reckless
miscalculation and a disservice to desperate Liberians, adding that The
ill-informed decision threw a wedge in the Liberia peace talks supported by
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the
International Contact Group on Liberia (ICGL)."

Noting that Taylor was flown home in a Ghanaian military plane following
the announcement of his indictment on June 23, 2003 during peace talks in
Accra, WANEP observed that African leaders have always been reluctant to
deliver their colleagues to face prosecution: "no African leader would
dare set the precedent to hand over a colleague to a court"

The peace body said that "Despite the mix of setbacks and opportunities,
WANEP still believes the moment to broker a lasting peace deal has come to
stay. President Taylor, stripped of all forms of legitimacy, may be willing
to settle down for the least option for a negotiated settlement."

WANEP sprung from efforts in the early 1990s to establish a regional
network of peace-building initiatives in West Africa. This arose as a
result of the Liberian civil war, which necessitated the creation of a
regional peace intervention force. Religious and civil society groups were
mobilized to collectively participate in active peace building.

WANEP can be contacted at <wanep@wanep.org>; or Tel +233-21-221318/388;
Fax: +233-21-221735; or online at http://www.wanep.org. (Source: WANEP)

-------------------------------

DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE IN FULL ON REQUEST FROM CISA
'Liberia: The Last Straw for Peace or Total Anarchy', a Policy Brief issued
by the West Africa Early Warning and Response Network (WARN), a key organ
of the West Africa Network for Peace-building (WANEP), and dated July 10,
2003.
SIZE: 116 kb
FORMAT: Microsoft Word (MS Word) Document
PAGES: 17
ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE: http://www.wanep.org/warn_policybrief_liberia.htm

OUTLINE:
Introduction
Historical Context of the Civil War
Critical Accelerating Indicators that Militate Against Peace
7	Indictment of Charles Taylor
7	Increased Genocidal Tendencies
7	Increase in Vigilante Formation and the Use of Child Soldiers
7	Implosion amongst Security Forces and Armed Factions
7	Demographic explosion
7	Regionalization of the Conflict
7	Humanitarian Disaster

Stakeholders Analysis
7	Government of Charles Taylor
7	The Americo-Liberians
7	The Liberia United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) Forces
7	Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL)
7	Opposition Political Parties
7	Civil Society

Secondary Stakeholders
7	Burkina Faso
7	Ctte dIvoire
7	Guinea-Conakry

Tertiary Stakeholders
7	ECOWAS
7	British Government
7	France
7	United States of America

Options for Response
1.	Deeper understanding of the problem
2.	Stabilization Force
3.	Immediate Humanitarian Intervention
4.	Composition of the Transitional Authority
5.	Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration
6.	Post-Conflict Social Reintegration and Development
7.	Truth and Reconciliation Commission
8.	Special Court
Conclusion

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