PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS
Press Briefing
PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS
19970224
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
At the noon briefing on Friday, 21 February, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Marrack Goulding summarized the results of the Second Ministerial Meeting of the Special Conference to Support the Peace Process in Liberia, which he had chaired on Thursday, 20 February.
Prefacing his comments, Mr. Goulding noted that the first meeting in November 1996 had been organized by the Minister of Cooperation for the Netherlands, Jan Pronk. Yesterday's meeting had also been organized by Mr. Pronk in collaboration with Chief Tom Ikimi, Foreign Minister of Nigeria and Special Envoy of the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The United States was involved as third organizer of the meeting. The United Nations had been asked by the three organizers to host and chair the meeting.
Mr. Goulding went on to say that the Secretary-General, in an opening statement, had set out his support for the Liberian peace process and urged the meeting participants to accomplish three things. The Secretary-General had said, first of all, political will was necessary to bring the peace process to a successful conclusion -- political will by the parties to the conflict, countries of the subregion and the rest of the international community, particularly donor States. The second thing was the courage to cooperate in pursuing the peace process. Finally, the resources must also be made available to ensure the success of the peace process.
A day of intensive discussion, Mr. Goulding said, had enabled participants to fulfil the three tasks set forth by the Secretary-General. It was positive evidence of political will on the part of the countries of the subregion and the international community to bring the peace process to a successful conclusion. There was a great deal of optimism about what had been achieved since 6 April 1996 when chaos and killing had broken out in Monrovia. After 10 months, it had been possible for the Nigerian Foreign Minister to say last Thursday that the peace process had become irreversible. There had been an acceleration of the demobilization of combatants. More than two thirds of the total estimated number of combatants had been demobilized. While there were undoubtedly still hidden arms in Liberia, the situation had greatly improved.
Mr. Goulding said the meeting also saw a consensus on the need to strengthen the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). A number of pledges of additional troops had been made by West African countries. The United States and other donor countries had confirmed
a readiness to provide help with airlifts, equipment and other related assistance.
In response to a later question, Mr. Goulding stated that new or confirmed pledges of an additional 1,800 troops had been made to ECOMOG (currently at a strength of 7,500). The meeting also received a detailed account from the United States of the logistical support which had been, and would continue to be, made available. In the margins of the conference, there were a number of meetings between troop-contributing and donor countries to work out practical details of logistical support.
According to Stanlake Samkange, Desk officer for Liberia in the Department of Political Affairs, Mali had pledged 650 and Ghana 500 troops -- and both contingents were already on the way. A medical battalion of 50 from Côte d'Ivoire was being airlifted into Liberia by the United States. Burkina Faso, Benin, the Gambia and the Niger had also pledged troops, and the meeting was an opportunity for those countries to match their commitments with donor capacity to take the troops into Liberia.
Regarding the "courage to cooperate", Mr. Goulding said that there was clearly "enthusiastic cooperation" between the West African countries and the donor community, and only one point -- on election arrangements -- could be considered as contentious. The Foreign Minister of Nigeria, who made a significant contribution to the meeting, said there were many offers coming in from the donor community in the areas of peace-keeping, the reintegration of ex-combatants into society, and long-term reconstruction efforts. The Minister had stressed the need for careful coordination to avoid duplication of efforts. The ECOWAS would play a major role in such coordination.
Mr. Goulding said the Secretary-General had been told that a number of pledges of post-conflict aid had been made. The Norwegian Ambassador had said that his Government had become more willing to commit resources to the peace process because of the evidence of the faction leaders' serious intent to implement the many agreements into which they had entered. An important message to come out of the conference was, thus, the willingness of the international community to assist in situations where the combatants appeared to be serious about peace. Under such conditions, the "unlocking of the international purse" had been seen previously in Cambodia and, recently, in Guatemala, where $1.9 billion had recently been pledged following signature of the peace accords.
The biggest task ahead, according to Mr. Goulding, was the election. There was general agreement at the conference that the election should take place as scheduled on 30 May. There was recognition of the prevailing security difficulties. There was also agreement that the elections would be based on proportional representation and would be for a president and a bicameral legislature. The only major point that remained at issue was whether Liberians in neighbouring countries would be able to vote in those
Goulding Briefing - 3 - 24 February 1997
countries or whether voting would take place only in Liberia. Some supported the need to make the elections as inclusive as possible, by including the many refugees and internally displaced persons. Some neighbouring countries, which had been carrying a heavy refugee burden, expressed concerns about the consequences in their own societies of political campaigning in refugee areas. They would prefer a concerted effort to ensure the return of as many refugees to Liberia as could be accommodated through efforts of the international community.
Mr. Goulding said that everything possible would be done to assist the return of refugees in accordance with normal international standards. It was also important to explore methods of safeguarding host countries from the consequences of election activities which posed a concern for them. Consultations on that issue would continue. There was also agreement that there would be further ministerial meetings of the Special Conferences.
To a question about the number of Liberian refugees in the neighbouring countries of Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea, Mr. Samkange said there were at present about 768,000 refugees in those countries. The population of Liberia before the war was estimated at 2.3 million, and 150,000 were believed to have been killed in the conflict.
One correspondent said that James Jonah had described the conflict in Liberia as a "commercial war", saying the factions were funded mainly by European companies dealing in raw materials in Liberia. Were donor countries taking any action against their own corporations in that regard? he asked.
Mr. Goulding said such questions would have to be directed to the individual countries. He could not confirm the comments of Mr. Jonah.
What was the United Nations perception of the problem described by Mr. Jonah and did the problem in fact exist? the correspondent asked. Mr. Goulding replied that he did not perceive it as existing. The fact, however, that James Jonah from a neighbouring country said that it existed was significant.
To a query about the status of the issue of child soldiers in Liberia, Mr. Goulding said the issue remained very much a priority and had been brought up many times in last Thursday's meeting. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) briefed the meeting on its programmes for reintroducing child soldiers into normal civilian society. One of the problems which was mentioned in that regard was the damage to schools during the conflict. Mr. Samkange said that some 4,000 of the fighters demobilized were under the age of eighteen, and many were under fifteen years of age.
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