Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Monrovia (Agenzia Fides) - Until it has its own national security policy Liberia will have to rely on UN troops to guarantee protection for its citizens. This is the sense of a report recently presented to the UN Security Council by outgoing general secretary of the United Nations Kofi Annan.
After the signing of a peace agreement in 2003 in Accra (Ghana) which ended the civil war, the United Nations deployed peacekeepers to oversee the disarmament of the various militia groups which had been fighting each other and to guarantee national security, while waiting for the creation of a new army and a new police force. According to the peace agreement part of the former combatants were to be integrated into the new security forces created with support from the international community and an American private military company.
The report presented by Kofi Annan says the goal to have 3,500 more trained policemen by July 2007 can be reached but that the new army will not be fully operative until 2008 or later.
There is also serious delay in the process of disarming former combatants’ the report says over 39,000 of the 100,000 militia have yet to start programmes for integration into civil society. The report says the government aims to create an army of 2,000 men, but with 39,000 militia still waiting to be integrated into society, it will be many years before the country’s stability can be guaranteed. So far only 106 militia have been given minimum training.
The report says delay in creating a minimum of state social care (education and health) helps create risks at the level of security. “Limited extension of health services in the country remains a crucial problem. At the moment the country depends on NGOs which provide 90% of basic healthcare and hospital service”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 20/12/2006 righe 29 parole 345
