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Liberian churches plead for American help as peace talks approach
2003-119-6
5/28/2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
Liberia's churches are pleading with American Christians to help them as they seek to bring emergency assistance, peace and hope in a nation battered by more than 13 years of civil war.
Church leaders report a proliferation of armed groups, forced recruitment of children aged 12 to 18 years and amputations of men, women and children by the belligerent forces. The fighting has uprooted hundreds of thousands from their homes, driving them into overcrowded camps where the fragile shelters provide inadequate protection in the rainy season, which now has commenced. Fighting has rendered 80 percent of the country inaccessible to relief agencies, according to United Nations sources.
Because there are no safe corridors, relief supplies are unable to reach the affected, said Benjamin D. Lartey, General Secretary of the Liberian Council of Churches, in a May 23 situation report. The World Food Program has stopped distributing food to an estimated 200,000 displaced people in camps around Liberia because the rations were being seized systematically by armed raiders as soon as they were handed out, according to the United Nations. As a result, Lartey said, people are dying from starvation and diseases.
The global humanitarian agency Church World Service is striving to enlist U.S. churches and government leaders to take an active interest on behalf of Liberia's people. CWS is funding the participation of five Liberian church leaders in peace talks scheduled for June 4 in Ghana, and has sent food, blankets and personal hygiene supplies for displaced Liberians. Concerned Christian Community, a CWS partner agency in Liberia, said the latest aid shipment helped nearly 3,600 pregnant and nursing mothers, children and elderly in six internally displaced persons (IDP) camps near Liberia's capital city of Monrovia.
'We are talking with our Liberian partners about how we can keep Liberia in the forefront of people's minds,' said Donna Derr, Associate Director of the CWS Emergency Response Program. 'We continue to be incredibly concerned that the desperate situation there and that the tremendous needs haven't generated the funds to support the basic needs of all these displaced people.'
Civil war broke out in Liberia in 1989. The war officially ended with the 1997 elections and inauguration of President Charles Taylor. But in 1999, fighting broke out again, this time between government forces and rebels calling themselves Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). In April of this year, a new fighting group emerged in southeastern Liberia--the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). On May 20, MODEL rebels took control of the Harper seaport and airport in southeastern Liberia.
Now a third force, the Grebo Defense Force (GDF) has emerged in the southeast and is fighting MODEL in River Gee County. 'This group has been organized to protect their county from rebel incursion,' said Lartey. 'This is a serious development, for if peace does not come soon, this could be the new trend for many armed groups to emerge.'
Peter Kamei, a United Methodist who is general secretary of the YMCA of Liberia, said that if nothing is done, a bloodbath like that in Rwanda or Burundi could result.
'Whether Americans accept it or not, they are looked to as Liberia's most precious ally,' Kamei said. 'Liberia was founded by freed U.S. slaves, fought alongside U.S. troops in both world wars, supplied Firestone with rubber and--until the end of the Cold War--was the site of a strategic communications center. There is a need for America's voice to be heard.'
Talks between government and rebel leaders are now scheduled for June 4 in Ghana after several postponements.
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