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POLITICS: Experts Split on Plan for U.N. Trusteeship of Liberia

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 18 2003 (IPS) - A proposal for a virtual takeover of war-devastated Liberia by the United Nations is being given a mixed reception by African advocacy groups, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and human rights bodies.

”It would be inappropriate to turn Liberia over to the United Nations,” says Bill Fletcher, president of TransAfrica Forum.

”There needs to be a U.N. peacekeeping force, and the United Nations, along with the African Union, can play a very constructive role in facilitating internal negotiations and national reconciliations,” he added.

But ”Liberians must take the lead, and they are in the process of such negotiations,” Fletcher told IPS.

The proposal, being informally discussed in U.N. circles, calls for Liberia to be under the ”trusteeship” for at least two years, so that the West African nation can be ”governed” by a senior U.N. official authorised by the 15-member Security Council.

During this period, the country would be funded by international donors and policed by a U.N. peacekeeping force.

Jacques Klein, U.N. special representative in Liberia, has predicted that ”free and fair elections (in Liberia) are at least 18 months away”.

He also hinted that during the interim period, the country might have to be administered by the United Nations. ”There are a lot of good Liberian civil servants willing to form a technocrat government, beginning with a U.N. mandate,” he told reporters recently.

The United Nations might need as many as 15,000 troops to maintain peace in Liberia, he added.

Now about 1,000 Nigerian troops, who are part of a regional peacekeeping force from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), are in the country. Other nations that are expected to provide troops include Ghana, Senegal and Mali.

A few hundred U.S. marines are also in the capital Monrovia, with another 2,000 in ships stationed offshore.

No formal proposal has been made for a U.N. trusteeship, an African diplomat told IPS, suggesting, ”I think Klein is floating a trial balloon to see which way the wind is blowing”.

Klein had enormous administrative powers when he was U.N. special representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and, earlier, the transitional administrator for Eastern Slovenia.

”He probably wants to run Liberia the way he did Bosnia and Eastern Slovenia,” the diplomat added.

The most recent example of a U.N. trusteeship is East Timor, which was once part of Indonesia and became independent in 1999.

Addressing reporters in Monrovia last weekend, Archbishop Michael Kpakala Francis warned about the current power struggle among various warring factions to rule Liberia. ”Those who came to kill us, want to rule us,” he said.

The Roman Catholic archbishop urged the United Nations to send at least 15,000 troops to Liberia as ”part of the solution for the next two years”.

The Security Council is expected to meet within the next couple of weeks to formally create a new peacekeeping force for Liberia to replace the existing ECOWAS military force. Most of the ECOWAS troops are likely to be absorbed into the U.N. body.

Since the civil war began about 14 years ago, about 250,000 people have died in Liberia.

”The United Nations has an important role to play in the healing process, providing relief and confidence-building,” Reverend Gabriel Odima, president of the Africa Centre for Peace and Democracy, told IPS.

”But trusteeship will not be the answer to the Liberian crisis or even Africa in general,” he added.

Odima said the global community should help the nation’s people put together a transition government that represents their wishes.

”The United States should work with the presidents of Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Mozambique to help Africans find solutions to the problems in Liberia,” he added.

”It is time for the United States to help Africa move from the stigma of colonial legacy to a viable society where hunger is no longer a threat to human existence, and democracy and good governance become the theme of the 21st century and beyond,” Odima said.

But Daniel Volman of the African Security Research Project strongly supports U.N. trusteeship of Liberia.

”It would be the best way to ensure that a long-term programme of demilitarisation, humanitarian and development aid, and revival of democratic politics will be sustained and adequately funded,” he said.

”And I think the United States should commit itself to providing a substantial proportion of the money that will be required for such a long-term programme,” he told IPS.

A trusteeship, if backed up with adequate manpower and funding, ”would probably be acceptable to the various armed groups”, he added.

”And in the event that there was resistance, a strong peace enforcement mission would be capable of controlling the violence,” said Volman.

He also criticised the current U.S. military deployment in Liberia as ”probably the worst strategy that could be conceived”.

”The idea is that U.S. forces will only be used as a rapid reaction force to respond in the event that Nigerian soldiers confront armed groups that they cannot handle.”

But given the limited deployment of Nigerian troops, their small numbers, and the prospect that they will encounter serious difficulties if challenged, it is likely that the whole peace enforcement mission will soon become involved in combat, he added.

”What is needed is a much larger force, as recommended by Archbishop Francis and other analysts, composed of both American and African troops, which is capable of deploying throughout the country, and carrying out the necessary task of demilitarisation and relief,” Volman told IPS.

George Kun, a fellow at Refugees International, also supported the proposed U.N. trusteeship – particularly the East Timor model.

He called for the appointment of a U.N. administrator for a year, followed by elections. ”This would be the right path to take: anything short of this, I think Liberia will again plunge into another disaster.”