Displaced civilians in Monrovia to return to camps

The transfer of at least 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have been living in 116 temporary shelters and buildings in and around the Liberian capital, Monrovia, back to camps is set to begin on Thursday. "The movement of these IDPs brings these families a step closer to returning to their place of origin, primarily in north and northeast Liberia," Ross Mountain, UN Special Humanitarian Coordinator in Monrovia said in Monrovia. UN agencies, including the World Food Programme (WFP), the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and various non-governmental organisations and local authorities were making arrangements for the transfer, OCHA said in a statement on Tuesday. The IDPs, presently located in 56 school buildings and one health clinic in and around Monrovia will return to camps within Montserrado county, 15 km from the city centre where they lived before rebels attempting to topple former President Charles Taylor, besieged Monrovia between June and August. "A key aspect of this joint UN, NGO and government initiative is the vacating of the schools and health centres currently occupied by the IDPs," Mountain said. "The freeing up of these social structures will allow for their immediate rehabilitation and renewed use by children and people of Liberia," he added. The initiative was part of UNICEF's "back-to-school" strategy surveying educational facilities to ensure schools were ready to host students for the new school year starting 20 October. UNICEF would provide school supplies for teachers and students, including shelter assistance. WFP was also exploring the use of its innovative Food-for-Work programme as a method of payment for teachers, OCHA said. UNHCR would coordinate the transfer of the IDPs, including the overall management of the initiative. Once in Montserrado, the displaced civilians will receive food rations from WFP. Agencies and their implementing partners would also distribute shelter material, non-food items and provide other services. However, UNHCR reported that the lack of security, law and order in many parts of the country was still hampering humanitarian operations in Liberia. It said that widespread lawlessness and alarming rumours continued to fuel displacement in the countryside. Meanwhile, talks aimed at shaping UN support for Liberia's transitional government due to be installed on 14 October, got under way on Tuesday. An eight-member advance team of Liberia's transitional government committee visited UN offices in Monrovia to confer on preparations for the installation of the new government, a UN spokesman in New York said. Both sides emphasised the need to establish conditions of security in the country. Liberia's government and the main rebel factions signed a peace deal that set up an interim power-sharing government that paves the way for democratic elections in 2005. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Liberia, Jacques Klein, is in New York this week to ask the Council to authorise some 15,000 troops and 900 international police officers for a proposed UN peacekeeping mission to support the transition.