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Libe
ria will need nearly $500-million in stabilisation aid after 14
years of nearly relentless war, the United Nations and the World
Bank reported last week in preparation for a donors conference in
New York this week, reports The New York Times.
Advocacy groups have urged that particular attention be paid to
disarming and reintegrating an estimated 50 000 former soldiers, a
great many of them children, with a warning that a failure to
invest heavily in peacemaking in Liberia would bring further
bloodshed to West Africa.
The International Reconstruction Conference on Liberia, to be held
at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday and Friday, is to bring
together officials from international lending institutions and
donor countries to discuss aid efforts.
Liberia is facing its first chance of genuine peace since 1989,
when Charles G Taylor plunged his country into war.
The assessment of Liberia's needs by the UN and World Bank,
released last Thursday, found that Liberia would need $487-million
in stabilisation aid during the next two years.
The Associated Press meanwhile reports that if Liberia's fragile
peace is to hold, international donors must pledge more money to
rehabilitate the West African nation's child soldiers to ensure
that they-and new generations-don't take up arms again, a leading
human rights group said Monday.
"Much of the Liberian civil war consisted of children shooting and
killing other children," said Tony Tate, an Africa researcher in
the children's rights division of Human Rights Watch.
"The fragile peace in Liberia today cannot be solidified unless
they are disarmed and rehabilitated".
The United Nations estimates 15 000 child soldiers were active in
Liberia's most recent three-year conflict.
The New York Times and All Africa note that in a separate report
published Friday, the International Crisis Group, a research and
advocacy organisation, similarly urged donor countries and
international financial institutions to provide enough funding to
finance education and vocational training for the former
combatants. It also urged donor countries to commission an audit of
Liberian government funds said to have been diverted by
Taylor.
That proposition is likely to cause political waves in a country
with a fragile transition government.
The US government has promised roughly $200-million to rebuild
Liberia. Secretary of State Colin L Powell, is expected to attend
the meeting this week, as is his French counterpart, Foreign
Minister Dominique de Villepin.
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