PRESS BRIEFING ON LIBERIA

16 May 1996

Press Briefing

19960516 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

Liberian opinion leaders are strongly suggesting that the United Nations should take over the country as a trust territory, James Jonah, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Liberia, said at a Headquarters press briefing this morning.

Responding to questions on his visit to the region, he said leaders of Liberian civil society groups he met in Sierra Leone, in Ghana and even in camps in Liberia were of the view that "there's no way out at the present time in Liberia, either for the Abuja Accords or any other peace plan". He did not know whether the proposal would be appealing to Member States because of the costs involved, "but this a proposal of a significant number of Liberians in and outside of Liberia".

Asked for his personal view of the proposal, he said he thought it was a good idea, but he was also fully aware from his own involvement with the United Nations and the Security Council that "there's no taste for it". It could not be implemented if governments were not willing to assume the costs and the danger, as the warlords would try to make it as difficult as possible for the United Nations to operate a transitional system in Liberia. He had informed the Security Council of his personal reading of what he believed was the wrong lessons of the situation in Somalia which had put "us in a very serious position in Africa -- the tendency of governments to say we're not going to get involved because of the costs in blood and resources". He said it was a very dangerous idea which had to be re-evaluated. Governments had seen the results of such attitudes already in Rwanda.

Responding to further questions, he said the Liberian opinion leaders felt that United Nations trusteeship was the only way left. Everything had been tried, including what Mr. Jonah described as the "big gun theory" -- which was getting all the warlords together and letting them sort it out. "They have not sorted it out and what we have here is a tragic scene of refugees on the high seas and no place to land. That is really tragic." The Liberian situation was the tip of the iceberg of similar ones elsewhere.

Asked about the use of "crack" by the armed elements in Liberia, Mr. Jonah described it as "a cancer in the body politic of Africa". He said young boys and girls were kidnapped by the armed factions from villages and then given drugs. "That is the way they are kept in line", he said, adding that "it reminded him of an old British policy of giving soldiers a pint of beer". He said he had stated at a briefing of members of the Security Council that it was time "the world focused on this very dangerous tendency among armed

elements". He said the use of drugs was widespread and not limited only to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

What was the implication of the failure of west African leaders to hold their summit on the situation in Liberia in Accra last week? Were they getting fed up with the situation in Liberia, as generally believed? a correspondent asked. It was true that some leaders felt that way, Mr. Jonah said, noting that the scheduled meeting was the fourteenth by Heads of State of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Liberia alone. He gathered it was not a failure as such, but some of the leaders had felt there was no point attending when the two principal warlords, Charles Taylor and Alhaji Kromah, had indicated that they would not be present. The meeting had consequently been held at foreign ministers level with the summit rescheduled for early August to give the factions more time to "shape up".

He told a questioner that reports of involvement of the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) troops in stealing in Liberia could be exaggerated. He did not detect any organized large-scale looting by them during his visit, but he did hear of individual ECOMOG soldiers being involved. There had also been similar cases of commerce by ECOMOG troops trading in arms.

Mr. Jonah said he had informed the Security Council about a case of a vessel landing in Guinea with a good quantity of looted materiel. He said a responsibility had to be established. Without justifying their actions, he said many of the soldiers had not been paid for months. It was important that ECOMOG be given support for its job in Liberia.

Would action be taken against those individual soldiers responsible for looting? a correspondent asked, to which Mr. Jonah replied that such action rested with governments of the troop-contributing countries. The situation in Liberia, he said, was one of complete chaos, with no government to speak of. Under those conditions it would be very difficult to identify those responsible.

Asked whether it was possible to organize elections in Liberia before the achievement of genuine peace, as was done in Sierra Leone, Mr. Jonah said there were many differences although he did not believe it could not be done. There were too many armed factions in Liberia, while Sierra Leone had only two. "We were lucky in Sierra Leone to have a vibrant civil society voice -- women's groups, the press and church leaders who were very vocal and could not be cowed by the government. In Liberia it's extremely difficult for any one to open his mouth. These civil society groups have all gone underground." He also said that the fighting in Sierra Leone was confined to a section of the country, mostly in the east and south and intermittently in the north, while in Liberia, it was a generalized situation. Drawing on the Namibia experience in which South African forces there were confined to specific areas and

Liberia Briefing - 3 - 16 May 1996

monitored, Mr. Jonah said it was possible to envisage a similar programme in Liberia, "if there is no way out" there. Armed elements could be confined and monitored but not fully disarmed. It was a possibility that should be explored, he said.

Asked why the warring factions could not live together, he said it was "a very difficult issue for Africa". There was no incentive on the part of those armed elements to make peace, he said, adding that they were prosperous under the prevailing circumstances. They were engaged in commerce, whether in timber or diamond trade. "It is very lucrative", Mr. Jonah said. It was a problem that had to be addressed. It was not a question of their inability to live together because of ethnic differences. The faction leaders were not enemies, but were schoolmates, even relatives. They could be seen together at conferences, but would resume fighting on their return to Liberia. What was happening in the country was, in a way, a commercial war.

Asked whether the peace process in Liberia was on course or dead, he said that as far as he could judge, there were difficulties in implementing it. The West African Foreign Ministers had been able to propose what he termed "sensible ideas" to put the process back on track. The question was whether the faction leaders would accept them. He hoped the process would be back on track; otherwise some countries might pull out from the endeavour altogether.

Noting Mr. Jonah's description of the Liberian situation as a commercial war, a correspondent commented that there had been a couple of situations where the United Nations had imposed sanctions on rebel groups such as UNITA in Angola and Khemer Rouge in Cambodia. Was there some kind of action that could be taken to stop their trading, weaken their position and force them to the peace table? the correspondent asked. Mr. Jonah said sanctions had been imposed on Liberia about three years ago, but what had to be done was more than that. Those who engaged in commerce with the warlords were often not Liberians, or Africans. In many cases, they were Europeans and their governments are aware of what was going on. The businessmen were "covertly encouraging" those trading in illicit diamond mining and timber in exchange for weapons. "If there are no buyers they will not continue with the trade. I think one has to look deeply into that." The governments concerned should look into their laws to bar their nationals from engaging in trade with "warlords who are only concerned with enriching themselves, and in the process impoverishing their country and bringing about the loss of innocent lives".

Would he recommend some form of a transitional authority in Liberia or a "United Nations presence across the board"? Mr. Jonah noted that there was a transitional government in place in Liberia. He personally did not like such transitional bodies because of their tendency "to continue forever".

* *** *