wfn.org | [ENS] Liberia struggles toward an uncertain future

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

9/25/2003

Liberia struggles toward an uncertain future

by James Solheim

[ENS] Now officially the world's poorest country, Liberia is stumbling
toward an uncertain future, clinging to a fragile peace while attempting
to rebuild a devastated nation.

Gyude Bryant, an Episcopalian who will assume interim administration for
the country on October 14, is pleading for support from the
international community. "We are now in transition-and transition costs
money," he said. "We will be prudent on how we use these funds," he said
in an interview with Ecumenical News International in Ghana after peace
talks that led to President Charles Taylor's exile in Nigeria.

Bryant, who chairs the board of trustees of the Episcopal Church in
Liberia, pledged that his administration would be "transparent and open"
in the way it handles international assistance.

Yet there are signs that the violence continues. Church World Service
(CWS), the humanitarian and relief agency of the National Council of
Churches in the US, has issued a warning that President George Bush's
determination to remove US troops by October 1 "would destabilize
Liberia's fragile peace." United Nations troops will not be able to fill
the vacuum until after November 1, CWS reported.

"CWS partners in Monrovia, the Liberian Council of Churches, have stated
that the mere presence of the US ships, containing approximately 3,500
Marines and clearly visible offshore, are a stabilizing and calming
influence on the shaky situation in war-torn Liberia," according to
Brian Hinman of CWS. In urging NCC member churches to contact members of
the Senate Armed Services Committee and seek an extension for the
American presence, he said that removal of the ships "would embolden the
rebel armies to effect gains on the battlefield that were frozen in the
current peace agreement. That agreement, already fragile, would be in
shambles."

Fighting creates more refugees

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) finds "the fact
that Liberians continue to flee is very worrying. It is obvious that man
areas in Liberia are still very insecure and fighting is continuing,
making it all the more urgent that peacekeepers be deployed throughout
the country as soon as possible. The last thing we need is another
outflow of Liberian refugees to neighboring countries."

New fighting is reported along the border between Liberia and Guinea
between rebels and government forces and the UN agency is trying to
transfer the new refugees to safety further inland. It is also
coordinating assistance with partners on the ground to set up mobile
clinics, distribute some food, and install water and sanitation in the
reception areas. This year alone some 86,000 new Liberian refugees have
fled to neighboring Ivory Coast, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ghana,
bringing to 310,000 the number of Liberians in exile in the region,
according to UNHCR.

An estimated 250,000 people have been killed in Liberia's on-and-off
civil war that began in 1989 when Charles Taylor initiated an armed
uprising from Ivory Coast against President Samuel Doe who had earlier
seized power in a military coup.

Truth and reconciliation commission?

Children as young as nine were forced to take part in the combat and
Bryant said that a crucial part in the healing process for his country
would be to establish institutions for child soldiers where "these kids
can be detoxified and de-traumatized." He is also supporting calls for a
truth and reconciliation commission in Liberia similar to the one in
South Africa that examined gross human rights violations during the
apartheid era. He said that such a commission would be better than a war
crimes tribunal. "It is better than retribution," he said.

"Right now there is no reward for goodness in this country and this is
our challenge," said Peter Kamei, general secretary of the Liberian
branch of the Young Men's Christian Association. He is convinced that
much of the country's potential for recovery lies in the religious
communities, both Muslim and Christian. Yet he added that reconciliation
requires that people be called to account for their actions. "We cannot
let bygones be bygones. There has to be accountability. Peace in Liberia
will always be elusive if we have no judicial system. The rule of law is
crucial."

"The silence must stop, otherwise Liberia will once again become a
forgotten African emergency," added General Secretary Benjamin Lartey of
the Liberia Council of Churches. "For reconciliation to take place,
people will have to e prepared to admit that they have done wrong," and
churches must help to put an end to a culture of impunity protecting
those responsible for the situation, he argued.

Bryant acknowledged that, when it came to forgiveness, "it is difficult
to talk about grace when you have no food and you are hungry and cannot
feed your children-and everything you have has been looted." The first
priority, he said, is to provide people with basic human needs. "The
situation is not hopeless. We have the good will of the international
community and we need to capitalize on that," he said.

Bryant will receive some help from his older half-brother, the Rev.
Burgess Carr, who has been quietly serving a Georgia parish in his
retirement. Carr will attend the installation October 14 and offer years
of experience in conflict resolution, helping to end civil wars in
Sudan, Nigeria and Ethiopia. He said in an interview with the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution that his brother was chosen because he is a
political neutral who is respected by all sides for his fairness and his
refusal to leave the country as it slid into chaos. "I'm scared for him.
It's a risky position to take on," said Carr, who has served as Africa
secretary for the World Council of Churches, head of the All Africa
Conference of Churches, and director of Episcopal Migration Ministries
for the Episcopal Church USA.

-- James Solheim is director of Episcopal News Service.