‘Come home,’ new President of Liberia urges refugees in UN video

Liberia's new president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is urging tens of thousands of her compatriots who fled brutal civil war in their country to consider returning now to join in rebuilding it, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

In a video for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recorded shortly before her swearing-in yesterday, Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf tells the refugees that she understands their apprehensions and vows to work with partners to address them so that returning refugees and internally displaced persons can live peacefully.

She also pledges that her Government will work with UNHCR and other partners to help refugees settle in, find work and obtain basic services.

The president's filmed message will be part of a UNHCR mass information campaign for some 190,000 Liberian refugees scattered across West Africa.

For many, last November's peaceful elections were a sign that after 14 years of unrest and violence Liberia is back on the road to peace and stability. UNHCR and its partners are preparing to accelerate repatriation during the remainder of the dry season, which lasts through June.

“Reintegration and reconstruction remain key priorities,” UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva today, adding that the agency will continue to carry out projects to repair shelters, roads, water points, schools and clinics. “Returnees themselves play a leading role in the repair works, and the projects help provide them with much-needed jobs,” he added.

At the height of the violence in Liberia, some 850,000 people fled their homes – half a million of them within the country, the rest scattered around West Africa.

Since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2003, half a million people have gone back to their home communities, including around 200,000 refugees and 300,000 internally displaced persons.