Liberia, 2004

It is an honour for me to

stand here today to address the General Assembly at its

fifty-ninth session.

When, in 1945, Liberia joined the efforts to

establish this Organization in order to bring an end to a

global war and to pursue justice and maintain world

peace, little did we know that we had subscribed to an

insurance policy that, 59 years later, would provide

coverage for Liberia and redeem its people and its

sovereignty.

As members know, Liberia is a country in

transition from continued crisis to sustainable peace.

The United Nations, the United States and the

European Union have all worked with the Economic

Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to

stabilize the situation, attending to the humanitarian

crisis and navigating the difficult road to peace. We

remain immensely grateful for the role of South Africa

and ECOWAS for providing regional leadership in the

search for peace in Liberia. The pivotal roles played by

both the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic

of Ghana deserve special commendation. We are

particularly grateful to Secretary-General Annan and

the United Nations, the United States and the European

Union for partnering with ECOWAS in these

endeavours.

I am pleased to inform this Assembly that the

Comprehensive Peace Agreement singed in Ghana in

August 2003 continues to guide the Liberian peace

process. A power-sharing National Transitional

Government comprising all warring factions, political

parties, and civil society is working. The ceasefire

agreement signed on June 17, 2003, continues to be

insured by the 15,000-strong United Nations Mission

in Liberia (UNMIL), operating with a Chapter VII

mandate. The force is now disarming and demobilizing

all armed groups.

At the beginning of the United Nations Mission

in October 2003, we estimated that some 38,000

combatants would have submitted themselves to the

disarmament and demobilization program. Today,

73,600 fighters have been disarmed. Over 22,000

pieces of serviceable weapons of all kinds have been

surrendered and decommissioned, and more than

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5 million rounds of ammunition collected and

destroyed by UNMIL.

Meanwhile, the high number of combatants

disarmed and demobilized has overwhelmed our

capacity to rehabilitate and reintegrate them. The

absence of social infrastructures exacerbates the

situation. War-related damage to the national

infrastructures and community facilities is extensive.

Without exception, all communities have lost their

capacity to accommodate and support even the

slightest caseload of returnees.

Some of the ex-combatants have enrolled in civil

works programmes sponsored by UNMIL, the

European Commission, the United States Agency for

International Development and the People’s Republic

of China. A significant number are seeking readmission

into regular academic programmes. Others are

enrolling in vocational training institutions to acquire

life skills.

There are special efforts being made for children

and female former fighters to receive specialized care

and training through programmes sponsored by United

Nations agencies and other international and local non-

governmental organizations.

As a direct result of the civil conflict, a sizeable

number of Liberians are currently residing outside of

the country, mostly as refugees. As disarmament nears

completion and as our Government extends its

authority, the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees is preparing for organized repatriation of

Liberians. In addition, some 500,000 internally

displaced persons are expected to commence leaving

their camps and returning to their local communities

towards the end of October this year.

The role the United Nations is playing to bring

sustainable peace and human dignity to our country

and people is phenomenal and indicative of the new

challenges which the United Nations and the

international community must face and meet head on if

we, the people of the United Nations, are to live in

peace and enjoy our inalienable rights. Peace and the

freedom to enjoy those rights under the rule of law

require not just curative measures, but preventive

actions to address the problems of poverty, ignorance

and disease of the world’s poorer peoples and

countries.

The National Transitional Government’s recovery

agenda has as its focus the improvement of the well-

being of our people by the creation of employment

opportunities to put returnees and ex-combatants to

work. Our recent history teaches us that when ex-

combatants are not meaningfully rehabilitated and

reintegrated and that when many in our society are not

stakeholders and are excluded, we run the risk that they

will return to violent crime and conflict. We are

extremely worried about that prospect.

Against that background, there is now real

urgency to revive our economy and create jobs. That is

why, in June of this year, I pleaded with the Security

Council to lift the sanctions imposed on diamonds and

timber — two sectors that hold great potential for job

creation and economic recovery. Sanctions continue to

hurt Liberia. It must not be forgotten that the sanctions

were imposed primarily because Liberia was exporting

conflict by trafficking in arms for diamonds. A related

reason was the lack of transparency and accountability

in the management of State resources, especially from

the forestry sector and the maritime programme. That

situation no longer obtains.

Our Government is not buying arms. To the

contrary, we are disarming tens of thousands of

combatants. We are also cooperating with the

International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank,

the African Development Bank, the European

Commission and the United States Treasury and State

Departments in putting into place proper mechanisms

for transparency and accountability in the use of State

resources.

In that regard, the European Commission is

funding the systems audit of five revenue-generating

agencies and the Central Bank of Liberia. The World

Bank is working with the Government to reform the

public procurement system and is assisting the Liberia

Petroleum Refinery Corporation to put into place a

system of international competitive bidding of

petroleum products. The IMF is assisting the Central

Bank to introduce transparency in the management of

the foreign exchange regime. The United States

Treasury Department is engaged with us in financial

sector reforms, particularly in the areas of monetary

policy, revenue enhancement, budgeting and

expenditure controls. Also, the United States State

Department is working with the Forestry Development

Authority in implementing an environment-friendly

forestry reform programme.

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Given all these efforts, we once again appeal to

the Security Council to lift the sanctions to enable us to

create jobs and to attend to the enormous social needs

of our people.

In early February, the United Nations, in

collaboration with the World Bank and the United

States Government, co-hosted a donors conference for

Liberia. The aim of the conference was to seek support

for our two-year reconstruction plan. The international

community responded generously with pledges of $520

million. I am happy to report that, to date, $455 million

of those pledges have been classified as firm

commitments. Projects are under way to spend those

funds and to bring much needed relief to our people.

Elections in Liberia are not new, but most have

been characterized by widespread rigging. Thus, unfair

elections in themselves have been a major source of

conflict in Liberia. This time around, Liberians are

determined to undertake free and fair elections as an

equity participation in the investment of sustainable

peace and national renewal. The Transitional

Government remains committed to the holding of

elections in October 2005 and to the smooth transfer of

power to a democratically elected Government in

January 2006.

Liberia has developed strong collaborative efforts

with our neighbours in the Mano River Union to end

the activities of armed non-State actors. The Mano

River Union countries have committed themselves to

strictly adhering to the Non-Aggression and Security

Cooperation Treaty of the Union and the meticulous

implementation of the fifteenth protocol. Liberia

reiterates its commitment to cooperating with all

provisions on security and peace as enshrined in the

charters of the United Nations, the African Union, the

Economic Community of West African States and the

Mano River Union.

We call on the United Nations to urgently engage

in crisis prevention and in strengthening the peace in

our region. In that regard, we urge this body to work

with regional and subregional organizations, such as

the African Union and ECOWAS.

Today more than ever before, the utility of the

United Nations is being tested. Never before has the

world faced so many different types of conflicts in so

many different places at the same time. However, we

are encouraged by the fact that the high number and

complexity of those problems have not lessened the

determination of Member States to stay the course of

fostering international peace and stability.

The threat posed by global terrorism, combined

with widespread poverty, especially in developing

countries, constitutes a real barrier to the attainment of

the Millennium Goals.

The continued existence of conflicts in the

Middle East provides a source of worry. After decades,

it is time that a workable solution be found to the

Israeli-Palestinian issue.

The current Iraqi crisis is also troubling to a

world body searching for solutions to world conflicts.

Liberia calls for a unified global approach to the Iraqi

question and urges the United Nations to play an active

role in the resolution of that crisis.

In Africa, news from the Darfur region in Sudan

is frightening. We support the position of the African

Union on the Darfur problem and ask for a speedy

resolution of the crisis so as to bring relief to the

region.

The recent massacre of nearly 200 Tutsi in

Burundi sends a grim reminder of the 1994 genocide in

Rwanda. Urgent action should be taken to contain the

situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Making peace is difficult because the resolution

of conflicts sometimes engenders new contradictions

that must be addressed. In post-conflict situations like

ours, where national capacities have been decimated,

the continued goodwill of the international community

to assist in reconstruction is paramount. We thus pray

for the continued engagement of the United Nations in

global crises.

Liberia has gone through 15 years of violent

conflicts. In Accra, Ghana, in 2003, Liberians reasoned

together to reject war and build a better society. Liberia

is now breaking through from being a failed State to

being a democratic and vibrant society. There is now a

growing sense of hope and optimism among our

people. We cannot fail now, for we have seen the cost

of war as compared to the price of peace. Liberians

have finally resolved to choose the path of peace and

stay on it.