Security presence to be beefed up on borders

The Liberian government is setting up "a permanent security presence" along its northern borders with Sierra Leone and Guinea to contain rebels, a spokesman told IRIN on Thursday. It is also giving priority to a national disaster relief commission set up two weeks ago "to look into the situation of those internally displaced" by recent attacks, Jeff Mutanda, Assistant Minister for Public Affairs in the Information Ministry, said. Mutanda said that a rebel attack on Tuesday displaced at least 15,000 farmers from Haindi near Bong Mountains, some 75 km north of the capital Monrovia, to Kakata 30 km to the southeast. The rebels were, however, repulsed by government troops, he said. Tuesday's attack forced the closure of several institutions in the area, including a high school and a technical school which had 2,000 and 1,000 students respectively, Mutanda said, adding that food supplies would be affected if more attacks occured, because "the area is a heavy farming area". The displaced, he added, were mainly rice farmers and residents of a former mining settlement. "The attack was by a small pocket of rebels who are terrorising people and dividing government attention. Although Liberia is constrained by a UN arms embargo, government has decided to beef up security in places like Bopolu and Haindi, and to deploy soldiers to set up a permanent security presence in border areas with Sierra Leone like Kolahun, and with Guinea like Voinjama and Zorzor," he said. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice has released a Standard Operations Procedure [SOP] for the security forces, news agencies reported on Wednesday. A task force comprising representatives of government ministries and other agencies will form part of a national joint security committee tasked with enforcing it. AFP reported that the SOP bars security personnel from misinforming the population or creating fear, displaying firearms within the city, looting, raping, and harassing citizens. It also requires officers returning from the war front to conceal their weapons once they are within the city's limits. Over the past few weeks, thousands of people in western Liberia have been repeatedly displaced as a result of shooting incidents and clashes between armed groups. A state of emergency was imposed on 8 February. Ross Mountain, UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator, told a news conference in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, on Tuesday that the number of IDPs in Liberia - who, he said, "have been displaced a number of times" - was estimated at 50,000 to 60,000. An assessment was going on to determine the exact figures, he added. Mountain called for contributions to an appeal for US $17 million which the UN has made this year for humanitarian assistance for Liberia.