UN envoy begins regional swing to rally support for Liberia peace process

Kicking off a round of regional visits, the United Nations envoy for Liberia has stressed the international community's responsibility to help the promising political changes take hold.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Liberia, Jacques Klein, met today in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and Vice President Solomon Berewah to discuss the re-opening of the road between Liberia and Sierra Leone to enable trucks to be driven into the war-torn country.

The meeting was the first in a planned series of visits to discuss the situation in Liberia with West African leaders. Upon his arrival in Sierra Leone yesterday, Mr. Klein told reporters that it was the responsibility of the international community to "make Liberia work." A failed Liberia, he added, "will spell disaster for Sierra Leone and the sub-region."

Mr. Klein added that he was "working well" with Liberian President Moses Blah and that he hoped that the in-coming administration would live up to his expectations. Mr. Blah is expected to hand power over to Gyudeh Bryant, the 54-year-old businessman who was picked last week by warring factions and civil society to head an interim administration.

At the same time, Mr. Klein decried the fighting that has erupted in some parts of Liberia, saying, "this will go on until sufficient UN troops are on the ground. When they know we have more guns than they do, they will stop." Some of the fighters are giving peace a chance while others are elusive, he noted, but stressed, "I am sure we will be able to do a good job in Liberia." The envoy said he would return to New York within the next two weeks to present his assessment report to the Security Council on the requirements for a UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia.

Also today, Mr. Klein met with David Crane, Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which has indicted exiled Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes committed during Sierra Leone's bloody 10-year civil war. Tomorrow, Mr. Klein expects to travel to Conakry, Guinea, to meet with senior officials there.

Meanwhile in Liberia itself, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) continued food distribution over the weekend and said that an estimated 122,000 people have now been reached throughout the capital, Monrovia. The agency also succeeded in providing food to sites for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sinkor, Newport St. and Capital Bypass.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) distributed non-food items in Monrovia, including 1,000 plastic sheets. It also said that 154 Sierra Leonean refugees left Liberia over the weekend to return home.

Yesterday, an initial assessment of camps for IDPs took place in Montserrado, 15 kilometres outside of Monrovia. Conditions are reportedly poor in terms of food and other supplies. Another assessment mission is scheduled for today. A separate survey team travelled to Bong County to examine the camps for internally displaced persons there.