7/29/2002 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York
By Carol Fouke-Mpoyo*
NEW YORK (UMNS) -- The findings of a Church World Service peace delegation to West Africa have resulted in an immediate emergency response to the troubled region by the humanitarian aid agency and its partners.
Open conflict between rebel and government forces in Liberia has sent tens of thousands of Liberians fleeing for safety across the border to Sierra Leone in recent weeks.
Based on the immediate needs reported by the July 2-18 delegation, CWS is shipping more than $100,000 in supplies for Liberian refugees in and around Freetown, Sierra Leone. The shipment includes blankets and health and baby kits, along with additional supplies donated by CWS partner Lutheran World Relief.
Concurrently, CWS is seeking to raise an additional $100,000 to support the efforts of other partners, including the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone, the United Brethren in Christ and the Baptist Convention of Sierra Leone, in caring for the new influx of refugees.
Funds raised also will help Sierra Leoneans displaced during that country's devastating 11-year civil war get back on their feet. The war ended in January.
An estimated 25,000 Liberians have entered Sierra Leone since then. As many as 500 border crossings an hour have been reported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as Liberians flee the conflict between their government forces and the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy.
Reports by the CWS delegation and other sources say many of the Liberian refugees and Sierra Leone's own returnees are ill and require medical attention. Some are in severe need of food.
Led by the Rev. John L. McCullough, a United Methodist and CWS executive director, the eight delegation members went to West Africa in response to an invitation from councils of churches in Guinea, the Gambia, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
On the heels of its peace-building delegation, and beyond immediate emergency response action, the agency is accelerating further support plans for West Africa. CWS staffers Susanne Riveles, director of education and advocacy for international justice and human rights, Joe Roberson, director of immigration and refugee programs, and Ivan DeKam of the emergency response program, were visiting councils of churches and partners in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ghana in late July.
They were responding to the CWS peace delegation's accounts of the deep wounds and critical needs that were identified across much of the West Africa sub-region. The focus includes issues of refugees and the internally displaced; special needs of women and children affected by conflict; peace and reconciliation; and the long-term needs for trauma care and counseling.
Delegation members also hope to meet with U.S. government leaders in Washington in the coming weeks to galvanize more stable financial and political support for the struggling countries.
In an intensive 16-day tour, the CWS delegates traveled across the four-country region, meeting with church councils, government leaders, U.N. officials and non-governmental organization partners, and visiting refugee and amputee camps and sites destroyed by war.
During a final press conference July 17 in Monrovia, Liberia's capital city, the delegation decried the "alarming, continuing destabilization" that the region is experiencing.
"The crisis situations prevailing in this sub-region and the plight of the people who feel that their basic human rights are severely compromised have become a matter of deep concern," the delegation said.
One-third of Liberia's population is believed to have been displaced by fighting between government and rebel forces. A flurry of peace conference efforts may hint at reconciliation, but the country's condition remains critical, on top of a debilitated economy and virtually non-existent infrastructure.
Victor Hsu, McCullough's senior adviser, met with Charles Taylor, Liberia's president, on July 18. Taylor asserted that "the problem of Liberia is the United States," and he criticized sanctions imposed both by the United States and United Nations.
He also charged that the United States has been training Guinean soldiers to infiltrate Liberia. "Liberia always regarded the U.S. as a big brother, a good friend and ally," Taylor told Hsu. "If the U.S. wants to, it can dramatically change the situation in Liberia immediately."
Taylor told Hsu that he hoped CWS would convey to the Bush administration the Liberian government's desire to receive a high-level U.S. delegation to hold talks on ways and means of improving relations between the two countries.
Hsu said he replied that the CWS peace delegation would be sharing its report with the Bush administration, members of Congress, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Secretariat of the Economic Community of West African States.
Hsu said Taylor told him he was pleased to work with Sierra Leone's president to help bring peace to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - three countries joined in what is called the Mano River Union. Taylor confirmed that a second meeting of the heads of state of the Mano River Union would be held early in August.
While in Liberia, the delegation also met with the Liberian Council of Churches' executive committee, Foreign Minister Monie Captan and government officials working to organize a Liberian National Conference on Peace and Reconciliation.
The Liberian Christian Women's Peace Initiative used the occasion of a meeting between a broad group of Liberian church leaders and the CWS delegation to issue its own statement asking for an immediate cease-fire by both government and rebel forces. Liberia's interreligious council has been advocating for peace for some time, and talking with government and rebel leaders.
CWS delegation members visited the Jartondo Town Internally Displaced Persons Camp, a few miles outside of Monrovia. Kai Jelly from Lutheran World Federation, the lead agency in the camp, and Chris Wilson, the camp manager, said most of the 10,000 people there had fled recent fighting in Grand Cape Mount and Bomi counties. Many of them have been displaced more than five times. # # # *Fouke-Mpoyo served as media liaison with the Church World Service delegation to West Africa.
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