Security before refugee resettlement - Lubbers

Several thousand internally displaced people (IDPs) and returned refugees sheltering in camps near the Liberian capital Monrovia, begged the head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on Tuesday for urgent help to resettle in their home towns and villages. At Mount Barclay camp, which is home to 15,000 displaced people, a crowd consisting mainly of women and children greeted Ruud Lubbers with posters reading “Resettlement is our only hope” and “All we want is to go back to our towns and villages because the war is over.” However, Lubbers replied that resettlement could only begin once the 15,000 UN peacekeeping troops in Liberia could guarantee security throughout the country. “I have seen the misery you have gone through in Liberia, he said. “UNMIL is trying to make the country safe and at some point, it will be safe to return home.” UN force commander Daniel Opande assured Lubbers that his blue helmets would complete their deployment in a matter of weeks. “In two-months time, we will be in a better positions to have control over all the country. We will be deploying troops in other parts of southeastern Liberia where there are no peacekeepers, we will also extend the DDR [Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reconciliation] exercise there,” Opande said. At Perry Town camp, on the western outskirts of Monrovia, refugees who had returned home spontaneously read out a statement to the former Dutch prime minister protesting at their treatment in neighbouring Sierra Leone. “We Liberians, seeking refuge in Sierra Leone, were not treated humanely in accordance with international law,” they said. The refugees, who had returned voluntarily since the signing of a peace deal in Liberia in August 2003 voiced concern for the fellow refugees they had left behind. “We call for the speedy repatriation of our suffering brothers and sisters in Sierra Leone beginning May,” their statement continued. However, Lubbers reiterated that the UNHCR’s official resettlement programme for 350,000 Liberian refugees scattered across West Africa would not begin until October, once the rainy season is over. Last week, the UNHCR office in Monrovia said about 50,000 Liberian refugees had spontaneously returned home from Guinea and Sierra Leone since the August peace agreement ended 14 years of civil war. But it added that most of them had ended up in camps for displaced people. Lubbers is on a three-nation tour of West Africa, At a previous stop in Guinea, he told the 89,000 Liberia refugees in the country that they should prepare to go home soon. “Sierra Leone now has peace and some 250,000 refugees have returned there and another 50,000 are awaiting repatriation. So now, it’s for you Liberians to return home,” Lubbers said during a visit to the Boreah refugee camp near Kissidougou on Sunday. “The process of disarming the ex-combatants is now on course, we have an interim government in place – and you should go home and help rebuild your war ravaged country and educate your children,” the head of the UNHCR said. However, his audience in Guinea was not convinced at the wisdom of returning to a Liberia, since the warring factions they fled from now share power in a broad-based transitional government. “We cannot now rush this repatriation process,” said a spokesman for the assembled Liberian refugees. “Since those who forced us to flee with their guns behind our backs are now the people in government in our country, what guarantees do we have over our safety?” added The 6,000 Sierra Leonean refugees remaining in Guinea have been told by the UNHCR to go home by 30 June, after which all official assistance to them will come to an end. Back in Liberia, Lubbers visited some of the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people who also need assistance to go back to their homes. Relief workers told IRIN that there were 500,000 internally displaced persons sheltering in 20 camps in Liberia, most of which are located around Monrovia. UNMIL (United Nations Mission in Liberia)launched a DDR programme on April 15, which is aimed at disarming up to 60,000 former combatants who are still roaming the country with their guns. Four cantonment sites have been opened so far to demobilise fighters loyal to former president Charles Taylor and the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) rebel movements.