NEWS STORY: Aid groups to curtail Liberian relief efforts

c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)- A dozen major religious and secular relief agencies, frustrated by the massive looting of aid material in Liberia, have announced they will”severely limit”their humanitarian work in the war-torn West African nation.”The agencies have reached a point where they are saying `enough is enough,'”said Rich Moseanko, a senior relief […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)- A dozen major religious and secular relief agencies, frustrated by the massive looting of aid material in Liberia, have announced they will”severely limit”their humanitarian work in the war-torn West African nation.”The agencies have reached a point where they are saying `enough is enough,'”said Rich Moseanko, a senior relief associate for World Vision International, the Monrovia, Calif.-based evangelical Christian relief agency.”They are extremely frustrated. None of the warlords have expressed any regard for the Liberian people. There is no viable option.” Moseanko represented World Vision International at an all-day meeting May 28 at the Geneva offices of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), where 12 U.S. and overseas aid agencies agreed to provide only”targeted, minimal, life-saving interventions”in Liberia and end other development work.

Agencies signing the agreement to limit aid, in addition to World Vision International and the Lutheran World Federation, were the United Methodist Committee on Relief; Action Contre la Faim; Catholic Relief Services; Oxfam; Save the Children Fund, UK; Caritas International, and its Swedish and German agencies; ActionAid; and the African Commission of Health and Human Rights Promoters.


The decision to curtail operations means that major donor governments and the United Nations will not be able to work through the humanitarian agencies as they have for the last several years.

Liberia, founded by freed American slaves in 1847, has been engaged in a bloody civil war since 1989. Since then, an estimated 150,000 people have died and half of the nation’s 2.9 million people have been left homeless.

Relief and development aid began to pour into Liberia last August after the country’s warlords and politicians agreed to a cease-fire and established a government council composed of leaders of most of the factions.

But fighting broke out April 6 after the governing council fired warlord Roosevelt Johnson and sought to arrest him on murder charges. Over the next several weeks, troops of the various factions engaged in a frenzy of fighting and looting in Monrovia.

According to the LWF, agencies working in Liberia, including the United Nations, lost more than 400 vehicles and other equipment and resources worth $35 million since the renewed fighting. “It was so bad that even my taxi was taken,”said Moseanko, who was in Liberia at the height of the looting in Monrovia.

The LWF’s World Services headquarters in Monrovia was raided nine times on Easter Sunday, April 7, the day after fighting between the Liberian warlords resumed. It has lost 27 motorbikes and more than 30 trucks, buses and other vehicles.

Moseanko estimated World Vision’s loss at about $350,000, including vehicles, computers and office equipment.”The acts of the warlords have become so outrageous that we can’t gear up again to help the country unless they agree to a cease-fire and guarantee access and security to humanitarian aid workers,”said Kathryn Wolford, executive director of Lutheran World Relief, the joint Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod agency, which serves as the U.S. arm of the LWF’s relief program.


She said the humanitarian agencies”have tried everything-from negotiating with the warlords to replacing the equipment.” But Wolford and Moseanko also said that the agencies, in addition to being frustrated, are fearful that their stolen resources-especially the vehicles-are being used to prolong the fighting and enhance the profits of the warlords.”You have to ask if you’re not just feeding the conflict,”Wolford said.

The agencies are drawing up a formal statement that will be delivered to the factional leaders in Monrovia. It will demand a cease-fire among the warlords and assurances that relief groups have access to those in need and are able to carry out their work without harassment or fear of being robbed.

They also expect to circulate a statement outlining their position to the United Nations, the European Union, the African nations supplying a small peacekeeping force in Liberia and other governments and humanitarian agencies involved in Liberia.

Moseanko said the decision to sharply reduce but not totally end relief work in Liberia”was something of a compromise.”You can’t bring humanitarian aid to a complete stop,”Moseanko said.”The urgent needs there will be attended to. And none of the groups want to be accused of using food as a weapon.” But he said it was also strongly felt at the meeting that the groups needed to send the warlords a message that they will not continue to do business as usual in longer-term projects such as the repair of the nation’s infrastructure and agricultural development.

Although the fighting in Monrovia has died down, Moseanko and Wolford said it was only a temporary lull and the underlying political issues that led to the renewed fighting remain unresolved.”It is definitely too early to say that the lull means anything,”Moseanko said.”Until the fighters are forced to the table, it’s going to be business as usual for the warlords.”

MJP END ANDERSON

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