Donors say government should lead in reconstruction

A multi-donor assessment team has told the Liberian government that it must lead in the country’s reconstruction in order to attract outside help to the effort, Star radio reported on Tuesday. The 20-member team made the call on Monday in a meeting with Liberian government officials in Monrovia. Team leader Mamadou Dia, a World Bank official, said the visit was intended to restore donor confidence in Liberia. So far, he said, the government had progressed in ensuring good governance and fiscal transparency. However, he added, it needed to improve living standards and reduce poverty. “There’s a lot of double speak by bureaucrats, some UN officials and our own government,” Augustine Toure, director for Liberia Democracy Watch, told IRIN. Liberia, he said, was still failing in good government. Complaints abound about the poor behaviour of some of the security forces and the National Human Rights Commission has remained toothless because it lacks the power of subpoena. Toure said the government had stopped lectures which the human rights community was giving to the security forces but was demanding an end to a UN embargo on the sale of arms to Liberia. If the embargo were lifted, he said, the government would make massive arms purchases instead of building the schools and other infrastructure so badly needed for the country’s recovery. Two years after the war, hospitals and clinics still need rehabilitation, he said, and full water and electricity services need to be restored. The team’s visit is a follow-up to a donor conference held in Paris last year to seek support for Liberian reconstruction.