Lubbers says the situation is getting worse

Ruud Lubbers, the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said on Wednesday that the humanitarian situation in war-torn Liberia was getting from bad to worse. "The human misery in Liberia is awful...violence all over the place...there is a need to have a rapid solution to the conflict," Lubbers told reporters at the end of a one-day visit to the captial Monrovia, during which President Charles Taylor refused to meet him. Lubbers, a former Dutch prime minister, said the international community must come up with an effective peace plan for Liberia in the light of a civil war which has dogged the country ever since Taylor launched a rebellion in 1989 which eventually brought him to power. Lubbers strongly urged all the warring parties to stop fighting before the humanitarian situation got "out of hand." Marc Destinne de Bernis, the UN resident coordinator in Liberia, said recently that following advances by two rebel movements fighting Taylor's government relief agencies were no longer able to operate in more than 70 percent of the country. The High Commmisioner had planned to meet with President Taylor, but he was received instead by the Director General of the Cabinet, Blamo Nelson and Health Minister Peter Coleman. During his meeting with these officials, Lubbers stressed the need for the Liberian government to take an active role in the restoration of peace. He particularly underscored the need to protect refugees from Cote d'Ivoire who are spread out in different parts of the southeast where there has been heavy fighting in recent weeks. At a refugee camp on the outskirts of Monrovia, Lubbers appealed to Sierra Leonean refugees there to follow the example of those who have already returned home since the country's decade long civil finally ended in January 2002. "Your future is not in Liberia, but there," he said. However, the refugees said in a special statement presented to Lubbers: "Our concern is our desire to return home, but some of us are afraid that we could face persecution". There are still over of 16, 000 Sierra Leonean refugees in Liberia. UNHCR last week resumed the repatration of volunteers from Monrovia to Freetown on a specially chartered ship.