Annan names new envoy to coordinate UN activities

The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Jacques Paul Klein, a senior United States diplomat and former head of the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as his new special envoy to Liberia, the UN reported on Wednesday. Annan, in a letter to the Security Council released in New York, said that in light of the rapidly unfolding political events in the war-torn West African nation, he was naming Klein to lead and coordinate the activities of the UN in that country. "The consequences of allowing the situation to spiral out of control are too terrible to contemplate," Annan said in a strongly worded letter that called attention to the danger posed not only to Liberia, but other West African States, especially neighbouring Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire. He instructed all UN agencies to return to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Liberia. The agencies evacuated their international staff when the security situation deteriorated last month as rebels fighting to topple President Charles Taylor, approached the capital, Monrovia. The Secretary-General said he was sending Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, Special Representative for West Africa, to the Ghanaian capital, Accra, to provide full UN support to the ongoing dialogue among the Liberian parties attending peace talks that have been underway there since 4 June. He requested his Representative for Liberia, Abou Moussa, and Resident Coordinator, Marc de Bernis, to return to Monrovia to prepare for the return of UN and associated personnel. Last month, Annan warned that the volatile situation in Liberia could deteriorate into a massive humanitarian catastrophe and urged the Council to mandate the deployment of a multinational force to Liberia. On Wednesday, the Council's 26 June-5 July special mission to West Africa recommended in a report that the 15-nation UN body urgently consider authorizing an international stabilization force to quell the violence in Liberia. The mission's leader, Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom, told the Council in New York: "West Africa can not be asked to sort out its problems without international funds and stronger links to the global community." The report said the deployment of a stabilization force should be considered on the basis of current plans by West African states, including that it be led by a State outside the region and consist of over 5,000 troops. "Plans for deployment should be drawn up rapidly, since delay will risk renewed breakdowns of the ceasefire," it said. It urged countries to consider rapidly providing financial and logistical support to West African states to facilitate deployment of such a force. The first 1,000 West African troops are expected in Liberian within two weeks. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) estimates that it would cost at least US $100 million to sustain such a force for six months. It has urged the United States to lead the force and contribute 2,000 men while ECOWAS contributes 3,000. But speaking in South Africa on Wednesday US President George Bush said the US did not want to overstretch its troops who are engaged in many other parts of the world. Bush however repeated his demand that Taylor step down. Taylor has accepted to leave the country for exile in Nigeria, but has not given a date for his departure.