September 25, 2003

Liberia struggles toward an uncertain future

by James Solheim, Director, Episcopal News Service

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 detraumatized." 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