Monrovia (Fides Service)- “Sadly we will celebrate the coming of Holy Peace this year without peace” Consolata Missionary Sisters Harbel, 50 km south of Monrovia, capital of Liberia told Fides. “The disarmament process is slow and there are still many armed soldiers around. But there are signs of hope which make this Christmas better than Christmas last year: roads are safer and it is easier to move from one town to the other”.
“This means we can visit refugee camps in Ganta (northern Liberia) where we also have a leprosy Centre. We have visited camps with as many as 30,000 or 40,000 thousand people in need of everything. This is why we decided to spend Christmas separately in our various missions in Liberia. In our mission at Buchanan, in the south, there are still a large group of displaced persons and we are preparing special Christmas celebrations for them. With them we will spend a different Christmas, perhaps more authentic, because the Lord came in poverty and humility ”.
With fatigue Liberia is putting the civil war between exiled President Taylor and rebels behind. In October a national unity government was installed but on 7 December a UN backed process of disarmament was halted for logistic reasons. (L.M.) (Fides Service 23/12/2003 lines 24 words 295)