|
|
ECONOMY: Armed Gangs Plunder Liberia's Resources
By Abdullah Dukuly
MONROVIA, Dec 27, 2003 (IPS) - Liberia's power-sharing transitional government has
begun to identify the roadmap for the exploitation of the country's
resources that are being plundered by armed gangs violating UN sanctions.
The Security Council voted this week to maintain sanctions on the export
of rough diamonds and the arms embargo on Liberia for its role in the
guns-for-diamonds trade with former rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
UN asked Liberia, which is also enduring another sanction on the timber
industry used by rebels to fuel instability in Liberia and neighbouring
states, to work out ways that the sanctions could be lifted to benefit the
country.
The troubled West African state of about 3.5 million people is endowed
with abundant natural resources, including timber, rubber, diamond, gold,
and iron ore. But war has thwarted the use of these resources for the growth
of the nation.
Instead, fending warlords and their supporters, who control much of the
country, continue to plunder them to support their war ventures, human
rights activists told IPS.
The iron ore mining - the country's predominant economic sector -
contributing to 25 percent gross domestic product (gdp) and employing up to
25,000 people - remain idle since the outbreak of the war in 1989.
The diamond and timber industry - another promising economic prospects -
are being exploited by warlords in violation of the UN ban.
Although there is now a semblance of peace, sequel to the Aug. 18 deal
creating a two-year power sharing transitional administration until
elections in 2005, political commentators say the chances for the early
exploitation of these resources by theágovernment seem remote.
áá The cash-starved transitional administration currently strives on money
generated from port charges and income taxes collected from people in and
around the capital, Monrovia. The government depends on the quarterly 18
million dollars received from the Maritime and its 21-million-dollar budget
- approved by the mixed civilian-factional legislature - takes effect in
January.
- The government has not established civil authority across the country
where insecurity mounts with marauding armed gangs terrorising the civilian
population and pillaging the towns and villages," Thompson Adebayo, human
rights advocate and political commentator, told IPS.
He believes that the key to peace and economic growth in Liberia is the
disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of 40,000 combatants. ôThe
disarmament of the rebels will stem the rising tide of violence in the
country and pave the way for the use of the natural resources to rebuild the
country," he said.
The UN - acting on the peace deal that also calls for the creation of an
international stabilisation force - has adopted a resolution authorising the
deployment of 15,000 peacekeepers, 250 military observers and 1,100
international police in Liberia to deal with the country's massive political
and humanitarian crisis.
The Kenyan-born commander of the force, Lt-Gen. Daniel Opande said the
peacekeepers will be ôaggressively deployed to restore peace and security"
to the strife-torn country once the remaining half of the 15,000-strong
force arrives by 2004. There are already 8,000 peacekeepers from Russia,
China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and other Asian countries in
Monrovia awaiting deployment.
ôThe deployment of the peacekeepers all over the country will revive our
spirit to reconstruct our country," a well-placed government official told
IPS.
Statistics made available to IPS shows that 85 percent of the Liberian
population is unemployed, and 70 percent of the fighters are children.
ôWe want the sanction on the timber industry to be lifted. Because we
need funds to buy furniture and equipment for the broken hospitals and
schools as well as the government offices that were vandalised and looted
during the June-July war in Monrovia," said the official who requested
anonymity.
ôWe also need to repair our harbours, water facilities and the electrical
grid," he added.
The official, who is one of the aides to Gyude Bryant, Chair of the
Transitional Government also told IPS Monday that the UN sanction on the
timber industry - now the second dominant economic sector - dealt a severe
blow on the nation's economy. He said ô195,000 relatively-well paid timber
workers and their dependents lost their primary means of support".
In addition, he said, the timber sanction caused the government to lose
nearly 10 million dollars in fees, taxes and royalties, representing about
nine percent of the nation's budget.
An international donor's conference is scheduled for February in New York
to discuss ways to get Liberia back on its feet in the wake of the
devastating war.
At last week's round-table discussion organised by the U.S. embassy, U.S.
ambassador John Blaney said his government ôwants to see the timber industry
return in a way that will help the National Transitional Government of
Liberia and subsequent governments move the country forward".
While critics believe that Liberia may be on the road to peace, they are,
nevertheless, sceptical in their quest for UN to lift the sanction on
timber.
Veteran human rights activist Samuel Kofi Woods said last week that logs
were being exported from the ports of the southeastern region since
September. The region is under the control of the Movement for Democracy in
Liberia (MODEL) rebels.
For presidential contender, Charles Brumskine, the lifting of the
sanction on timber now will give the rebels the ôlicense to enrich
themselves even more than exiled former president Charles Taylor".
Jacques Klein, UN special envoy in Liberia, also believes that ôas long
as the tens of thousands of fighters remain armed in the country, there is
too much risk that the illegal trade in weapons, diamonds and timber will
continue". (END)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What is RSS?
