IRIN Interview with the UN Assistant Energency Relief Coordinator, Ross Mountain

Ross Mountain, the UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator, travelled to Cote d'Ivoire and the Mano River Union countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone) between 6 and 19 February. During his mission, he met government, NGOs, donor and UN officials, IDPs and refugees. He told IRIN in Abidjan on Tuesday 19 February that while there has been progress on the humanitarian front in some regional countries, the situation in Liberia had deteriorated. As vulnerable populations constantly forced to be on the move, he said, Liberia's IDPs should be given the assistance they deserve. QUESTION: What was the purpose of your visit to the Mano River Countries and Cote d’Ivoire? ANSWER: The main purpose was, on the one hand, initially, to attend an important mission of donors who were visiting Sierra Leone in the context of the Consolidated Appeal Process to see how that works, and because the donors who are concerned with the subregion had decided to take Sierra Leone as a test case to see how the collaboration between the donor community and the United Nations system could be developed so that we are able to respond more rapidly to evolving needs. I wanted to be in on that since the CAP is one of the major implements that we manage on an interagency basis which has a great deal of donor support. We are very interested in seeing how we can improve that. Indeed, we spent quite a lot of time doing that. There will be, for example, at the end of next week in Montreux (France) the third annual meeting organized by donors on the whole Consolidated Appeal Process. [1] (…) Otherwise, it had been a while since I had been down here and I wanted to see how the coordination structures were working, including our own OCHA [Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] structures (…). It was also a very good opportunity to look at the region as a whole. I may say that clearly, over the last year, there has been significant improvement in the humanitarian situation and, indeed, though we’re not on that side of things, the political situation in Sierra Leone, in Guinea, in Cote d’Ivoire. And we’ve had to obviously face up to the breaking situation in Liberia. Another aspect of this visit was to see how we would establish a regional support office in Abidjan and for dealing with the Mano River Union countries in the regional context, helping link the interlocking concerns of refugees, IDPs, returnees, and therefore supporting those countries to do contingency planning, not only in the subregion but also looking elsewhere in West Africa, and to be able to interface with the donor community here (…) and otherwise to see how to strengthen the humanitarian community’s involvement and effectiveness in the subregion. Q: To what extent is the establishment of this office linked to the move to look at the region’s countries not on a piecemeal basis but to have a regional approach, or a subregional approach, if you like? A: I think it is certainly important to see the Mano River countries and Cote d’Ivoire together and therefore to be able to help each country react to the circumstances occurring in other countries which might affect them, so it is very much in that direction. For example, given the situation in Liberia now we will be doing contingency planning with our agency partners so that we are adequately prepared to deal with such spillover as may occur in neighbouring countries due to the recurrent disturbances in Liberia. I went across the Bo River last Sunday from Liberia into Sierra Leone and discovered that there were 2,000 new Liberian refugees who turned up in the previous eight days. Now, obviously, we need to look at what could happen as a contingency if there are going to be more refugees, and to work with the agencies concerned - UNHCR in particular but others also in support - on how one would deal with a new caseload of Liberian refugees, be it in Sierra Leone, be it in Cote d’Ivoire or elsewhere. Q: What’s your assessment of the situation in Liberia? A: In short, in the midst of an ongoing effort to try and move away from the humanitarian preoccupations there have been in the aftermath of each of the civil war circumstances that have occurred in 1990, 1992 and 1996, we now have an interruption in this process through the fighting, the shooting, that has affected so many people in the areas of Lofa, Cape Mount and Bomi, which has had them fleeing from camps in those areas successively. We are talking about people who have been displaced not once or twice, but three or four times, who have had to run for their lives, carry with them what they could on their heads and in their hands. Often, like recently this incident in Klay (2) that occurred on the 8th or 9th, they have ended up having their families scattered all over the place and therefore the problem of family unions is evident. So we have particularly a very significant problem now of internally displaced people in Liberia. The good news is that they have started repatriating the Sierra Leoneans, but the group that we now need to focus on is the IDPs, the new IDPs who are around Monrovia and in Bong County nearby. At this stage we estimate the number to be about 60,000, needing urgent support. The humanitarian needs of these people are manifest, not only for food and shelter which, quite clearly, they need, but also for protection. These people are running scared and they need to be able to settle somewhere, and be assured that they are not going to be subject again to further harassment. That has been a vital part of our concern in the course of this mission in Liberia.

Q: Are the IDPs in Liberia getting the support and attention they need? A: The support of the international community for humanitarian action in Liberia (…) both last year and so far this year, has been unfortunately quite inadequate. A number of agencies have been able to borrow stocks from various places and that includes, of course, NGOs and the Red Cross, to try and deal with the immediate needs but, for lack of funding, a number of NGOs are closing down their activities. Another aspect that we are trying to underline is the importance of the international community making good on the understanding that we all have that when you have a community such as the IDPs in Liberia that are not part of any political faction but innocent villagers that are essentially caught in the crossfire they should deserve support and be able to receive it and no matter what the external perceptions may be of a country or a number of countries on the government of Liberia. This is not a question of government, it’s not a question of politics, it’s a question of ensuring that support is available for those who, without help, are in a very serious situation indeed. Q: I’d imagine that there is a lot of attention, interest rather, in the subregion for the situation in Liberia, and perhaps concern. Did this come out in your discussions with regional officials? A: Of course there were preoccupations because in Guinea there are Liberian refugees, as well as Sierra Leonean refugees, that hope to be able to return home at some point (…) Here in Cote d’Ivoire, of course, there is great interest as well. Cote d’Ivoire has a significant Liberian refugee population and quite clearly they are concerned about it being enlarged, as all the countries in the region are. More broadly, if there is no particular solution to stabilizing the situation in Liberia, and indeed, trying to look to a regional settlement then there is the very real danger that such activities as are going on now will not only destabilize Liberia but have an effect on neighbouring countries, which could mean that some of the extremely positive progress that has been achieved is reversed. Q: You speak of progress. Could you elaborate on that, especially with regard to Sierra Leone and Guinea? A: In Sierra Leone, one has seen the disarmament of the combatants. That has gone, I think, better than anybody would have hoped. The issue of reintegration is still an important one. The situation that has developed has been such as to allow UNHCR and the refugees themselves to start wishing to return home and UNHCR has started to repatriate the Sierra Leonean refugees from Liberia and they are also looking at plans for bringing them back from Guinea. So that is real progress and the challenge again is reintegration into communities, some of which had been destroyed. We were up in Kailahun (Sierra Leone) in the course of the mission and it was inconceivable even a few months ago that it would be as quiet as it was at the time. I’m not suggesting there are no challenges, but I am certainly pointing to major progress. Again I’ve been in much of Guinee Forestiere (3) that was inaccessible to relief workers. It is now largely accessible, not entirely, and it is possible now for the very substantial number of internally displaced within Guinea to contemplate returning home. That again will be another challenge, the very large number of internally displaced in Guinea, who need assistance where they are, who moreover will need assistance to reintegrate and indeed rebuild their own communities, which had unfortunately been destroyed in the fighting. This is in Guinea Forestiere, the Parrot’s Beak (3) and so on. We’re looking at a number there in excess of 200,000 needing to be reintegrated. Q: Let’s look at one of the main challenges in Sierra Leone. The question of the reintegration of ex-combatants. What is needed from a humanitarian and perhaps a developmental perspective in that regard? A: The reintegration of ex-combatants is of vital importance for the stability of any country and, if I may say so, in the case of Liberia it does not appear that that process was completed after the disarmament of many of the ex-combatants. The danger for the country is presented by young people who don’t have anything particular to do. So the reintegration process is about them being able to get back into their own environment, their own communities, but also being able to be gainfully employed. That’s not easy, creating jobs, but that really is the challenge without which they do present a potential problem for the future. Q: Is that also true of Guinea? A: In Guinea it was brought to our attention that there are some volunteers who had been armed (4) during the course of the last couple of years, maybe about 9,000. Certainly some authorities brought to our attention the need for a programme similar to that which occurred in Sierra Leone, of disarmament and reintegration into their societies. It’s a challenge that has been left with the national team there to see how that will be carried forward. That should also be part of the relief-to-development, the post-conflict, path that the country seems to be on. Q: Would you say the subregion is being neglected? A: There have been, as ever, diversions of attention to a number of more spectacular crises than West Africa in recent times, most recently of course Afghanistan. That has drawn public and media attention, which is all important, and that has had significant impact on finances available for a number of these programmes. Sierra Leone hasn’t done badly at all in this context. The major donors have been quite generous, so in Sierra Leone that’s gone quite well even though there are still needs. Guinea has done far less well and Liberia has been virtually neglected. In terms of the appeal for last year, the response was minimal, and the resources needed for dealing with the ongoing difficulties of Liberia are not available. (Now, in addition, they’ve had to deal with this new crisis.) We are calling attention to it in the consolidated appeals put together towards the end of last year, some US $17 million - which is not a large amount - as at least an interim basis for us to be able to deal with these kinds of issues with our partners. Q: What do we risk if there is not enough support for efforts to achieve lasting peace in this subregion? A: We always say that many of the conflicts that we need to intervene in on the humanitarian side need the will of the key political actors involved to come to a political settlement. It’s only fundamentally through that that one can obviate the humanitarian crises that we need to address. We certainly would hope that the initiatives that are now in train (bear fruit ). There is talk of a meeting of the three heads of the Mano River Union countries taking place in Rabat (Morocco) before the end of the month. I don’t think one can expect a miracle to come out of that but I think that surely has to be seen as a first step. I believe that we have learned painfully that the subregion is intertwined and that problems in one country have a habit of causing problems in others. The Security Council looked at the Liberia situation recently, and did recognize the importance of dealing with the humanitarian dimension. It did emphasise the importance of issues such as protection for the internally displaced. They emphasized this in the context of trying to provide the support base on which political arrangements could be made to resolve the problem in the subregion and we certainly are hopeful that the countries who did recognize that will be willing to contribute so that resources will be forthcoming for those of us with that type of mandate to deal with humanitarian issues - the UN, certainly, and our different operational agencies, but also of course our non-governmental partners, a number of whom have had to close down their activities in Liberia, as well as the Red Cross Movement. From the OCHA side we will be reinforcing our office there to provide such support as we can. I mentioned contingency planning, in terms of information flows, in terms of strengthening the coordination mechanisms and possibly, as we have been looking at in other countries, ensuring that we are able to help those who are operating outside the capital, for example around Gbarnga in Liberia, in Kailahun in Sierra Leone, in Guinee Forestiere, so that there are areas outside the capital where we are able to provide support and collate the type of information that helps the operational partners address the needs and for us collectively to spot the gaps and make the contribution that is required for those who are in distress from the various battles that have had to be fought in the subregion in the past few years. NOTES: (1) The CAP is “primarily a coordination tool. It’s about setting a common strategy into which all the key actors on the ground buy in, not just the UN system but the NGOs, the donors themselves, and indeed we try and associate the Red Cross Movement, putting together an overall strategy which at least determines the direction and overall priorities which will be addressed in a particular country. Out of that you would then have a set of priorities which usually are confined to the United Nations system, but the key aspect of this, the crucial aspect, is the strategy. “ [Source: AERC Ross Mountain] Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals for the Mano River and other countries can be viewed at:http://www.reliefweb.int/appeals/index.html (2) Klay is an area less than 50km from Monrovia where IDPs from other camps had sought refuge in late January. The IDPs fled Klay on 8-9 February when shooting broke out in the area. (3) ‘Guinee Forestiere’ is a part of southern Guinea that borders on Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire. The Parrot’s Beak, (in French ‘La Languette’) is a slice of Guinean territory that juts into Sierra Leone. Insecurity in 2000 and early 2001 displaced hundreds of thousands of Guineans and refugees in both areas. (4) The volunteers were armed by Guinean authorities to protect their areas against rebel incursions.