First UN relief mission in months lands in Liberia port town

For the first time in months, a joint United Nations humanitarian mission managed to enter the small port of Harper in southern Liberia and has reported that the "largely deserted" town has suffered extensive looting.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Food Programme (WFP) relief ship Martin I arrived from the capital Monrovia on Saturday. The team began working yesterday afternoon amid tight security and after negotiating safe passage from the rebel faction, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), which has occupied the port since May.

The 15-member team comprises representatives from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as OCHA, WFP and one international non-governmental organization (NGO), the Danish Refugee Council, and a Liberian healthcare NGO, MERCI.

"Harper is practically deserted," said Jo Hegenauer, UNHCR's Senior Emergency Officer who was part of team. "We estimated that fewer than 700 people are currently living in the town. Almost everyone is a male between the ages of 15 and 50. The few women we saw were businesswomen selling goods from Ivory Coast."

Meanwhile in New York, the UN Security Council had a scheduled meeting with potential troop and civilian police-contributing countries to the proposed UN peacekeeping operation in Liberia. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Liberia, Jacques Paul Klein, is expected to brief the 15-nation body tomorrow.

Mr. Klein told reporters Friday that the country had "stepped back in time" and that he would ask the Security Council not to be indifferent to the people of Liberia. He said the hardest part would be to rebuild Liberia in terms of long-range reconstruction and funding, because the regime of former President Charles Taylor had effectively destroyed the State. He is expected to press the Council to authorize some 15,000 troops and 900 international police officers for the mission.

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