PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECRETARY-GENERAL’S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR LIBERIA

The Secretary-General continued to emphasize the security dimension of peacekeeping in Liberia, and the United Nations needed to deal robustly with internal or external emerging threats there, Alan Doss, his Special Representative in that country, said at a Headquarters press conference today.

Mr. Doss said that, regardless of security concerns, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was working to encourage recovery and reconstruction, so as to underpin all national efforts needed to move beyond the shadow of conflict.  He was briefing correspondents on the Secretary-General’s latest progress report, which he had earlier presented to the Security Council.

He said the report’s findings indicated that much progress had been made in Liberia, but there was still work to be done because the country had just emerged from 14 years of civil war.  The Security Council had reacted positively to a set of benchmarks proposed by the Secretary-General regarding the aggressive assessment of progress made.  While the United Nations was cautiously optimistic about moving forward, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had been in office barely eight or nine months, and Liberia remained in a troubled neighbourhood.  The situation in Côte d’Ivoire remained very uncertain, Guinea had its own preoccupations and elections were to be held in Sierra Leone next year.

When asked about the investigation of sexual abuse by UNMIL personnel, he said that issue was a constant concern.  The Organization had a zero-tolerance policy and continued to work to ensure it was respected.  The Mission had installed a conduct and discipline unit responsible for awareness training of everyone joining it.  More than 30,000 people had rotated through UNMIL, and it took just one case to create a sense that the Mission had not correctly monitored the situation.  Those actions were part of a broader strategy to deal with gender-based violence, abuse and exploitation in Liberia.

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For information media • not an official record