Liberia, 1992

We ask the President to accept our hearty

congratulations on his election as President of the General Assembly at its

forty-seventh session. We pledge to him the fullest support and cooperation

of the Liberian delegation as he puts forth his best efforts in guiding the

deliberations of the Assembly.

We offer his illustrious predecessor. Ambassador Samir S. Shihabi of

Saudi Arabia, our deepest appreciation for the able manner in which he

conducted the affairs of the forty-sixth session, and we wish him well in his

future endeavours.

We welcome the advent of Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a distinguished

African scholar and diplomat, to the position of Secretary-General of the

United Nations. His stewardship of the Organization since the beginning of

this year has witnessed the utilization of the finest diplomatic skills,

undiminished resolve, and broad vision to address the many challenging

problems which now confront the international community. This singular

commitment on his part to the cause of global peace and security, social

justice and economic prosperity has inspired tremendous confidence that the

United Nations will continue to be the appropriate forum for harnessing

various ideas which can promote the betterment of mankind.

We also welcome and extend a hand of friendship to the newly admitted

Members of the United Nations. We entertain the fervent hope that their

participation will contribute to the achievement of its lofty ideals and

objectives.

The cessation of the ideological antagonism which characterized the

cold-war era aroused great expectations that our global village would be

visited by a climate of international peace, tolerance and goodwill whereby

our energies could be devoted to grappling with the myriad problems of

underdevelopment. Unfortunately, with apocalyptic premonition, there are wars

and rumours of war casting grim shadows throughout our one world. In Somalia,

Bosnia and Herzegovina, in some of the nations emerging from the former Soviet

Union, and even in my own country, Liberia, wars are raging, brought about by

either nationalistic yearnings, ethnic and religious rivalries, or by sheer

greed for wealth and power.

Although the United Nations does respond, sometimes much too belatedly,

to such crises, there is an urgent need for the Organization to employ its

moral authority in a more effective and non-selective way at the early stages

of conflicts to prevent the human tragedies which so frequently revisit

mankind.

In this connection the Liberian delegation notes with appreciation the

comprehensive and insightful report of the Secretary-General entitled "An

Agenda for Peace", in which he outlines specific measures and proposals to

enhance, in a more vigorous and non-selective way, greater United Nations

involvement in preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peace-keeping and peace

enforcement.

Within this context Member States that are better endowed must exercise

leadership to ensure that the United Nations becomes ready, willing and able

to engage constructively in humanitarian intervention in internal conflicts,

consistent with the guiding principles annexed to General Assembly

resolution 46/182 of 19 December 1991 and Article 2, paragraph 7, of the

United Nations Charter.

At this juncture we would wish to apprise delegations of developments in

Liberia and of Liberia's continuing quest for peace.

Since 24 December 1989, when rebel forces effected an incursion into

Liberia from a neighbouring country, Africa's oldest republic has been

embroiled in a tragic civil strife replete with atrocious mayhem, murder and

madness. In a three-way armed struggle for power in which the "enemy" was

defined with scarce exactitude, each faction preyed on the civilian

population, whose cries for help were heard by a largely indifferent world.

Liberia, a beacon of hope in Africa as a sovereign expression since 1847,

a country which welcomed and assimilated into its society thousands of other

Africans from neighbouring countries and elsewhere, was rapidly reduced to a

land of grief and desolation. This fratricide impelled about 800,000 of our

citizens to seek sanctuary in neighbouring countries.

After the disintegration of the Government and the attendant breakdown of

civil authority, and in order to avert further bloodshed, the Economic

Community of West African States (ECOWAS) undertook a mediatory initiative by

advancing a plan that secured the concurrence of all the interested parties.

The ECOWAS peace plan required, inter alia, the deployment of a peace-keeping

force, the ECOWAS Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), as well as the

formation of an interim Government of National Unity to include the warring

factions, the political parties and the interest groups of the country.

In August 1990 ECOWAS facilitated the convening of a national conference

so that Liberians could deliberate on the future of their country, form an

interim government and undertake the initial plans for free and fair elections

to be conducted under international supervision and monitoring. The National

Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), the main rebel faction, led by

Mr. Charles Taylor, failed to attend, apparently opting for a military

solution that was still vainly expected to arise from what was already a war

of attrition.

At the Conference, the delegates worked within the scope of the peace

plan that had been accepted by the warring factions as the basis for

mediation. It required that none of the leaders of the armed groups would

serve as interim President and that the interim President would be a caretaker

and not participate in the elections. Accordingly, the Conference reserved

for the NPFL leader the position of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the

highest position in the interim government, from which he could still seek the

presidency of the country in a free and fair election. The NPFL was also

awarded a majority seating in the interim Legislative Assembly. However, this

overture failed to induce the NPFL and its leader to find some common ground

with other Liberians.

The Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, meeting at an extraordinary

summit at Bamako in November 1990. negotiated a cease-fire declaration and

urged Liberians to continue the search for peace by holding another national

conference at which the NPFL could be present.

ECOWAS convened a second national conference at Monrovia in March 1991,

at which an NPFL delegation participated in the negotiation of an arrangement

for the governance of the country along the lines of a framework it advanced.

The euphoria that attended chose preliminary results were short-lived, as the

conclusions reached were summarily rejected by the NPFL leader.

A few months thereafter the NPFL alerted some of the leaders of ECOWAS

that it was not prepared to participate in an interim government that would,

alternatively, be disposed to negotiating, under the auspices of ECOWAS,

another proposal of its own. The NPFL proposed a snap election, to be held

within six months, to be preceded by the encampment and disarmament of all

armed combatants.

ECOWAS established the Committee of Five, headed by His Excellency

President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Cote d'lvoire, to work with Liberians and

help us reach an understanding. The negotiations took place in four different

meetings, producing an agreement which, because of the venue, has become known

as the Yamoussoukro Accord. This Accord has aroused declarations of support

from the Organization of African Unity, the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries

and the United Nations Security Council.

But how has the NPFL reacted to the commitments it undertook? At the

fifteenth session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS,

held at Dakar in July 1992, the 16 West African leaders reached a clear

consensus and observed:

"The Authority determined that the uncooperative conduct by the

NPFL, especially with regard to the encampment and disarmament of the

combatants and the insertion of a buffer zone along the Liberia-Sierra

Leone border, continued to pose a serious threat to the peace, stability

and security of the West African region."

The Authority therefore mandated the Field Commander of ECOMOG to

complete the implementation of the programme contained in the Yamoussoukro

Accord not later than 30 days from the conclusion of the summit meeting.

Furthermore, the West African leaders decided:

"That unless Charles Taylor and the NPFL comply with the implementation

of the said programme, the Authority shall impose comprehensive sanctions

against Charles Taylor and the NPFL-controlled areas of Liberia and any

other party that fails to comply with the implementation of the

programme; that all the Member States of ECOWAS shall take all necessary

measures to give full effect to this decision; that the Committee of

Five, in consultation with the Standing Mediation Committee, shall seek

the assistance of the Security Council of the United Nations to make

whatever sanctions are imposed effective and binding on all members of

the international community in accordance with the provisions of the

United Nations Charter."

In support of the decision taken by the ECOWAS Heads of State, the Tenth

Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, meeting

in Jakarta in September 1992, said, inter alia, in its Final Documents:

"if ... there are parties still frustrating the efforts to create the

required climate for the holding of free and fair elections in Liberia,

stringent economic sanctions as proposed by the ECOWAS Summit ... [shall)

be imposed on such parties and the areas they control."

It also "appealed to the international community to support said sanctions, if

and when invoked, as well as provide necessary assistance to Liberia and the

Economic Community of West African States Ceasefire Monitoring Observer Group

(ECOMOG)." We expect that the Security Council of the United Nations will be

equally supportive.

Consistent with the spirit of its responsibilities, the Interim

Government of National Unity has taken several measures aimed at enhancing the

NPFL's capacity to cooperate in the implementation of the undertakings into

which it willingly entered.

We have successfully contributed to sensitizing those countries that can

prove helpful in assisting with funding for demobilizing and rehabilitating

combatants. An amnesty has been offered to enhance the prospects for

reconciliation. We have secured food for the NPFL to help alleviate the

strains incidental to the encampment of its troops, which, to use its leader's

words, are currently "living off the land". To give confidence to the NPFL

with respect to the pending elections, we offered it the position of Chairman

of, as well as majority seating on, the Elections Commission. This we did

even though the political party that it is now forming is only one grouping to

enter an election with at least six other parties.

It should be recalled that Dr. Amos Sawyer, President of the Interim

Government of National Unity, will not be a candidate in these elections and

that therefore the advantages of incumbency are not a factor here. Moreover,

Dr. Sawyer has announced that, in order to ensure a unified country, if

Mr. Taylor would concede his forces' being encamped and disarmed, and if he

would renounce his claims to a bogus presidency in the area he controls.

Dr. Sawyer would resign in favour of another Liberian acceptable to both

sides, who would hold the country together through the remaining months

leading to elections.

We, the people of Liberia, know what we want. We want an end to the

war. we want a unified country. We want free and fair elections. While we

concede the existence of some deep-seated problems clouded by suspicion and

demanding circumspection, our difficulties are being compounded by the

influence that external factors and forces wield over the NPFL. This is not

to suggest that Liberians are not ultimately responsible for the havoc we have

wrought on our country, but it is important for the international community to

understand and appreciate the variables which tend to make peace elusive in

Liberia.

The Liberian crisis was planned abroad. Many of the insurgents were

trained outside the country. Those who initially provided the training, arms,

and finances have tried to explain to us their motives, couched in spurious

arguments of revolutionary duty to their oppressed African brothers. We must

remember, too, that the insurgents crossed an internationally recognized

boundary and appear still to be receiving the cooperation and support of some

of our would-be brotherly peoples. We remain aware that as the NPFL advanced

there was a systematic plundering of the country, with the extraction from

Liberia of movable capital assets, from earth-moving equipment to power

plants, from computers to automobiles, primarily by the route by which the

insurgents came.

We are also cognizant of the fact that a few multinational corporations,

some with investments in the country, provided material and financial

assistance to the NPFL, with the intention of hastening its advance. There

are others which, acting on the presumption of an imminent NPFL victory,

provided similar assistance to secure concessions in natural rubber, iron ore

and timber resources. We are aware that some of these foreign corporations

believe they have become too involved to disengage now, and they have sought

the support or acquiescence of their countries in what is transpiring in

Liberia.

We Liberians are concerned about the causes underpinning our present

dilemma. We do not wish to see our country go the way many small countries

have gone by being embroiled in a protracted civil conflict over the spoils of

war. Liberia need not be destroyed in a quest for economic advantages. There

is no reason for the pitting of Liberians against each other in a zero-sum

game and the transformation of the country into a mass grave.

We recognize that we live in an interdependent world and accept the fact

that economic ends or objectives will be pursued in our country. However, we

are dismayed by the senselessness of the manner and the means. Results which

can be achieved in an organized, civilized and equitable way need not be

pursued in a manner replete with disorder, carnage and confusion.

As we Liberians want to reconstruct our lives the future being all we

have left we affirm here and now that all the signs of good neighbourliness

we are already demonstrating are sincere and genuine and that they will

continue to be a sustained national policy. In the same vein, corporate

entities that were lured into errors of judgement will be expected to

participate in time in open-minded discussions with the intent that they

should become actual partners in progress with the people of Liberia.

The intransigence and negative attitude of the NPFL has led to the

emergence on the scene of a fourth force, the United Liberation Movement for

Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), which has declared itself to be a group of

Liberian refugees trying to find their way home. They also claim that their

primary objective is to compel the NPFL to adhere to the Yamoussoukro accord.

The ULIMO has engaged NPFL forces and recently, in a rapid advance, captured

several areas that had been under NPFL control.

We, the Interim Government, will continue our efforts to have a

cease-fire arranged between these contending forces. There is an urgent need

to avoid escalation through the likely involvement of the other forces, which

have been encamped for more than a year, awaiting the encampment of the NPFL

for the commencement of general disarmament.

Under cover of the security blanket provided by ECOMOG, the Interim

Government of National Unity has succeeded in re-establishing an acceptable

level of civil administration. We are pleased to note that since last year

schools have been open, with banking, mercantile and other commercial

activities resumed. Residents are being provided with basic social services

within the limits of our resources. We wish to observe that, despite the

emergency situation, we have been able to operate under the rule of law with a

constitutional Government which respects human rights. We take pride in the

fact that the people of Liberia have demonstrated both a spirit of cooperation

and the tenacity and the will to reorder their lives, in spite of tremendous

hardship.

Monrovia, which had a pre-war population of less than 500,000, has grown

to about 1.2 million as hundreds of thousands of our citizens continue to seek

refuge in the relative safety and normalcy of the capital. This mass

migration is placing a serious strain on the Government's meagre resources,

taking into account that the principal sources of revenue are under NPFL

control. As such, there is still a need for continued humanitarian assistance

to the country.

Concurrent with the effort to bring peace to Liberia and secure

appropriate conditions for holding free and fair elections, Liberia and the

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have invited the United

Nations to assist with the electoral process. The Secretary-General has

already sent consultants to Liberia to evaluate the availability of population

data and the situation of constituency maps, and to provide support to the

Elections Commission.

We wish to register our appreciation to the States Members of the United

Nations for the several resolutions adopted by the General Assembly in

response to the critical humanitarian and other needs of Liberia since the

civil strife began. We wish to thank all the countries, especially the United

States, Japan, the European Community, the Nordic countries and others, which

have made significant contributions in response to the appeals of the

Secretary-General both for the United Nations emergency programme in Liberia

and for assistance to the neighbouring countries which host Liberian refugees.

We also express our gratitude to the United Nations system, and to all

the non-governmental and private volunteer organizations which have continued

to provide assistance to our people. We trust we can rely on the

international community for its continued empathy and support as Liberia goes

through the most difficult period of its history.

The timely initiative of the Economic Community of West African States to

mediate in the Liberian conflict was a laudable response by a subregion to a

subregional problem, consistent with Chapter VIII of the United Nations

Charter. This initiative is most deserving of the encouragement and support

of the international community. We therefore call on the United Nations to

play an active role in mobilizing financial and other support for ECOWAS as it

responds to the Liberian crisis, which continues to pose a threat to regional

peace and security.

On behalf of the Government and the people of Liberia, we wish once again

to extend our heartfelt appreciation to all the member States of ECOWAS,

particularly the Governments and peoples of Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Guinea,

Sierra Leone, the Gambia and Mali, which are participating in ECOMOG. We

thank all of them for the many sacrifices they are making to restore peace to

Liberia.

While we are preoccupied with domestic considerations, we have firm views

which we would like to advance with respect to some of the issues on the

international agenda.

The painful and tragic situation in Somalia is a grim reminder to the

people of Liberia of the ethnic strife, the wanton destruction of life and

property, the grave refugee problem and the disintegration of the country that

we ourselves experienced. The appalling human condition of the Somali people

makes them deserving of treatment equal to, if not greater than, that given

any other country experiencing a civil conflict. That is why we are most

pleased with the recent initiative taken by the Secretary-General in arousing

the conscience of the international community to the plight of Somalia. We

also applaud the active role he is playing to resolve the conflict.

With respect to developments in South Africa, the Government of Liberia

views with serious concern the gruesome sectarian violence in that country.

In view of the positive steps that the South African Government, yielding to

international pressure, was taking to end apartheid, it is most distressing to

receive indications of that Government's apparent collusion with the appointed

leaders of homelands to unleash unprovoked violence and death on defenceless

civilians engaged in a legitimate exercise of protest. Such action can only

put at risk the gains that have been made by all South Africans.

We therefore urge the South African authorities to take speedy action to

arrest black township violence and exclude from the security apparatus those

responsible for the recent atrocities. My delegation is encouraged by the

reports that the leader of the African National Congress, Mr. Nelson Mandela,

and President de Klerk have resumed talks on the country's political future.

We appeal, however, to Chief Gatsha Buthelezi of the Inkatha freedom movement

to rejoin his compatriots in the negotiations for the establishment of a

non-racial, democratic society.

The tragic story of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of continuing

suffering, destruction and death. It heightens profound fears that if the

situation is not urgently arrested the world could find itself involved in a

major effort to prevent the extinction of a national group due to the

horrendous policy of "ethnic cleansing." Liberia deplores that inhumane

practice and calls for enforcement action in keeping with the relevant

resolutions of the Security Council.

With regard to the situation in the Middle East, Liberia welcomes the

renewed efforts by the parties to the crisis and others to move the peace

process forward. It is our continuing belief that only a negotiated

settlement within the parameters of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967)

and 338 (1973) can bring a just and lasting peace to that troubled region.

One of the perennial issues before the Assembly has been the need to

ameliorate the poverty and underdevelopment that plague the developing

countries. The mounting debt burden, the decline in commodity prices and

increasing protectionism are some of the factors contributing to the economic

stagnation in many developing countries. My Government is therefore concerned

about the delay in concluding the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. We

entertain the hope that the negotiations will be completed before the end of

1992, as envisaged.

It was in appreciation of the disturbing economic trends that I have

mentioned that the forty-sixth session of the General Assembly adopted a New

Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. Liberia calls upon the

international community to support the Agenda wholeheartedly in order to grant

relief to African countries.

Another important task of this session of the General Assembly is to

follow up the decisions taken by the United Nations Conference on Environment

and Development, which was held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. The decision

by most countries to sign the Conventions on climate change and on

biodiversity, as well as to adopt a comprehensive programme for sustainable

development. Agenda 21, reaffirmed awareness of the fundamental relationship

between development and the environment. As the Secretary-General observes in

his report, Agenda 21 constitutes the centrepiece of international cooperation

and coordination activities within the United Nations system for years to

come, it is therefore Liberia's sincere hope that at this session the General

Assembly will take appropriate measures to ensure the full implementation of

the historic decision that has been reached.

The rapid pace of change and the shrinking of our planet by faster means

of travel and communication have combined to make more relevant the

interdependence of nations. As such, Liberia reaffirms its abiding faith in

and commitment to the principles of the United Nations that have stood mankind

in good stead. Like those whose vision led to the birth of the Organization

at a time of great upheavals and challenges, we too must call forth the best

in us to ensure that we bequeath to posterity a world safe from pockets of

wars and the attendant dreadful consequences.

In pursuit of that attainable goal we must banish from our minds all

forms of mistrust, suspicion, fears and prejudices which, more often than not,

define our behaviour in national and international affairs. If we muster the

courage and the will to face squarely the new realities of the post-cold-war

era, then the chances will be enhanced of a stable international environment

in which the United Nations can promote social progress and development while

keeping the peace.