Bryant appeals for $44m to complete DDR and send IDPs home

Liberia appealed to donors on Tuesday to urgently provide US$44 million of promised aid to complete the disarming of former combatants and start moving people displaced by civil war back to their villages.

Gyude Bryant, the chairman of Liberia's power-sharing transitional government, launched the appeal before leaving for the United States on Wednesday.

There he will attend the UN General Assembly in New York and meet representatives from countries who pledged $520 million to help rebuild Liberia at a UN-sponsored donor conference in February.

"Pledges from the donor conference have been slow to come in," Bryant told reporters, stressing that Liberia needed the extra money to fund programmes during the remainder of this year.

"We need more funding for reintegration and rehabilitation. We have so far received $38 million and there is a shortfall of $44 million dollars to be able to carry out some of the projects we have earmarked for the programmes", he said.

"We are also including the resettlement of internally displaced persons in the $44 million that we are requesting," he added.

About 300,000 people displaced from their homes by 14 years of civil war are still living in a ring of camps around the capital Monrovia. The UN refugee agency UNHCR has announced plans to help 100,000 of them return to their villages by the end of December.

UN peacekeeping troops in Liberia began disarming the country's three armed factions in April, following a false start in December 2003. So far, more than 72,0000 people claiming to be former combatants have registered for disarmament in order to qualify for a $300 resettlement grant, vocational training and other help in returning to civilian life.

The disarmament programme is due to end on October 31, but the rehabilitation and reintegration programmes connected with it will continue for several months afterwards.

Liberia's National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration complained last week that the 30 October cut-off date would not allow time for all rebel gunmen in remote areas to hand in their weapons.

But Bryant said he had accepted the UN deadline. He pointed out that one reason why donors were slow in coming forward with promised cash to help rebuild Liberia was because the disarmament process was dragging on.

"Donors have put emphasis on the completion of disarmament before committing their funds", Bryant stressed.

The chairman of the transitional government reiterated a recent warning by Jacques Klein, the head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), that any gunmen who failed to hand in their weapons by the end of October would be prosecuted with the full force of the law.

We are appealing to you that if you have not turned in your guns by now, please do so before 30 October, so that we do not have to come after you", he said.

Bryant said his government had already received pledges of assistance to help rebuild Liberia's shattered roads and its water and electricity supply networks.

"I am glad to say that the EU, USAID and the World Bank have all come out to help in electrifying the country, repair our roads networks and restore pump-borne water," he said."Restoring electricity and water are already in the making".

The electricity supply network and the piped water supply in Monrovia and Liberia's other main towns were knocked out in 1990, a few months after the civil war began.

Bryant refused to say how long it would take to restore them to working order, but he stressed that both projects were entirely dependent on donor funding. "It is not possible for the government to take funding from its current revenue to execute these projects. We have to seek international assistance for water and electricity," he said.

Diplomats have cited rampant corruption within Bryant's government, which is dominated by elements loyal to former president Charles Taylor and the two rebel movements which drove him from power, as a key reason for donors withholding aid funds.

Last weekend, deputy US Treasury Secretary John Taylor alluded to this during a visit to Monrovia.

"The government must leave no room for corruption and provide transparency and accountability in the allocation and management of resources," he said.

Taylor went on to pledge that if the Liberian government cleaned up its act, more aid money would be forthcoming. "If Liberia continues to make substantial reforms, the United States and the international community will continue to help. To achieve lasting peace, Liberia needs to strive for economic recovery," he said.

Bryant's power-sharing administration is due to prepare the way for elections in October 2005 that will return Liberia to constitutional government.