Liberia: Inter-agency press conference

Mamba Point Hotel, Monrovia
Guests:

Mr. Ross Mountain-UN Special Humanitarian Coordinator for Liberia, Mr. Moses Okello, Country Representative-UNHCR, Mr. Cyrille Niameogo, UNICEF Country Representative-UNICEF, Mr. Deji Popoola, Country Representative-UNFPA, Mr. Justin Bagirishya, Country Representative-WFP and Mr. S.Thiru Gnanasambanthar, Country Representative FAO and Dr. Fatoma Boley for WHO Representative

Opening Statement: Ross Mountain

The United Nations has come back with international staff approximately a month ago. And we have benefited throughout the period from the very loyal and strong support of our national colleagues and also there are several Non Governmental Organizations plus the ICRC that was here before endeavor to work not only with our UN partners but with the national and international NGOs in trying to deal with the very serious pressing humanitarian problems that continue to confront this country. What we have sought to do is to consolidate the situation from the humanitarian point of view in Monrovia and then press up country and begin to open routes into the areas controlled by LURD we go to Tubmanburg and further up to Bopolu on a regular basis now into areas controlled by MODEL including regular trips into Buchanan. And indeed further into the central, in Bong County in government-controlled areas, which cover Totota, Salala and Kakata that particular corridor where there are, as you know are very substantial camps of Internally Displaced Persons.

That corridor has been of particular concern to us these weeks. Last week in particular as skirmishes and news of fighting have frightened the Internally Displaced Persons and others in the villages had a major displacement of Liberians, old people children, women and indeed other citizens who left there a week ago, some 50,000 ran from around the camps of Totota into Salala. There was an attack by militias on the camp two days ago in Salala and Phebe Hospital in particular. You are aware of the clashes that did occur in Kakata two days ago which sent internally displaced people and people from kakata running into Firestone Plantation many of them heading into Harbel.

The good news is that there has been the deployment of ECOMIL establishing a base in Kakata and yesterday in fact putting themselves up beyond Totota has certainly stabilized the situation and allowed us to continue the support and we hope to reinforce the support. We hope in the next couple of days to encourage those who ran to Salala to return to Totota and we hope to provide effectively the support they deserve. So we have been dealing with going outside of Monrovia. This is an effort we seek to enlarge. We are working to open a corridor in Sierra Leone which will bring in vehicles and supplies from Sierra Leone. The major hiccup is the state of the road in Sierra Leone. We have an agreement to do this. I don't know how we will get over that one before the rainy season ends which is a longer way then we had anticipated. We also moving further into the areas controlled by MODEL. We expect to leave tomorrow to Harper by boat to ascertain moving to Harper by air in the future. Next week we are moving a mission to Zwedru from cote d'Ivoire. And will the other missions. This is to indicate that we certainly recognized that it's important to meet the needs that are in Monrovia but Monrovia is not Liberia and we need to reach out to those in need wherever they are throughout the country. Clearly, the difficulty with security meant that we have to move quickly.

There have been an agreement signed not just the ceasefire. There is a specific agreement on the distribution of humanitarian assistance in Liberia that was signed between all the parties, the government of Liberia, LURD and MODEL leadership witnessed by the United Nations and ECOWAS and the African Union which we believe the leaders of the parties still adhere to. They reaffirmed that to us. But the problem as ever is trying to ensure that commanders on the ground; those at the checkpoint understand what this means in terms of their behavior and clearly, if people are going to face not just harassment but danger at the checkpoints, this will retard the capacity that we will have to move out and to deal with Internally Displaced Persons; vulnerable: women, children refugees and returnees going back. So that is the context in which we try to operate.

The format of coordination has been one of trying to involve the maximum number of actors working with our partners, particularly NGOs. We have obviously just looking here immediately, we have UNHCR not only dealing with refugees but also managing issues of the camps, the IDPs and refugees. UNICEF has been working on water and sanitation as a general area, education and the protection of children. These are all groups that are involved in a wide range of partners.

There is work underway dealing with the resumption of agriculture in various areas that we can reach and of course the importance of getting the seeds and tools before the harvest season. The world Food Program is involved in every aspect of food distribution including food for children, hospitals and indeed more general supplies. Also, the World Food Program has been organizing a number of the common services that we have in relations to those that I've mentioned in general logistical service and so on. UNFPA has been very concerned about sexual and gender violence medication related to that and indeed AIDS. WHO is leading the sector for health and nutrition. Issues here relate to cholera that is still a major threat in the community here in Monrovia but also in Buchanan where we are sad to say is a major problem. On the nutrition side we began with our NGO partners and discovered that there are serious incidence of malnutrition not just here but also in Tubmanburg and Buchanan. There are unfortunately Liberians in severe need and not just in Monrovia.

Today we start in Monrovia a program that is seeking to assist those who are in some 116 shelters in Monrovia to return to the Montserrado camps. In Montserrado we are starting small. Many people have already started to move back on their own. What we endeavor to do recognizing that security is all important is to work with ECOMIL to ensure that there is adequate security out there and to work with our various partners to ensure that water sanitation, health services and so on are established. The approach we are adopting to moving people is a voluntary one. We are focusing on the 56 schools in Monrovia that are currently occupied by IDPs. Why we are doing that is because we believe it's extremely important for the normalization process that we are to get the schools functioning again. Its been announced that the 20th of December the school year should start and for that to happen obviously a lot is to be done. UNICEF in particular is leading this back-to-school campaign in conjunction with a range of other agencies and NGOs so that has started today in a small way. About 60,000 people have already gone back to the camps which held up to 100,000 IDPs before the attacks and that's the beginning now. We are also going to be dealing with the others outside the schools in the other shelters.

That's in a sense a bit of an overview. I will be happy to take your questions.

On the issue of security and reported harassment and the systematic burning of shelters in the camps allegedly by LURD forces

Respondent: Moses Okello

You may be aware it is a matter of concern to all of us. We have not over looked that question of security, as you would agree with me. Security is an issue for everybody probably we could say all over Liberia with regard to the particular question that you put across. What we've done is to enter into an understanding with ECOMIL and we are facilitating ECOMIL to be able to provide security around the camps for IDPs as well as refugees to minimize and hopefully to eliminate the kind of thing you are talking about within the shortest possible time. We would not take people to places where they would not be secured. We are working closely with ECOMIL to ensure there is security for and around the camps.

On the issue of the number of schools and number of IDPs to be relocated to the previous IDP camps

Respondent: Ross Mountain

The estimate of the numbers of schools is 56 with 30,000 IDPs. What we will be doing on the one hand is to provide transportation particularly for the most vulnerable of them. We are focusing on particular camps and this is going to be a process that will take a couple of weeks any way to complete using trucks and vehicles that we have which are not in large supply.

There will also be a distribution of food and perhaps my colleague of the World Food Program may want to talk about that in the camps that we hope will take place I believe next week. Justin would you like to add to that?

Respondent: Justin Bargirishya

You are aware initially we started food distribution on the 16 of August. In Monrovia itself at the time there was practically no people in Montserrado camps. Gradually people started returning to the camps. Two days ago we were estimating the number of those who had returned over 58,000 people and as we speak, people are still going back to the camps. In order to facilitate these movements back to the camps, we decided to suspend general food distribution in Monrovia and concentrate on providing a full package of food into the camps as a magnet to bring people from Monrovia back to their previous shelters. We are now in the process of planning for a full food distribution to take place next week for all those who have returned to the camps. From then we would be able to supply a full basket of food not only the maize meal which was being provided here in Monrovia, I mean providing cereals, oils, pulses and salts.

On the issue of which camps the IDPs would be returned to

Respondent: Ross Mountain

We are starting today from the World Wide Mission to Jartondo, Wilson camps. Friday we are going to Wilson, Plumkor and on Saturday we will be going to New Port School. That's for the next 3 days.

On the issue of having access to the interior of Liberia and reaching north into Nimba given the security situation in that part of the country

Respondent: Ross Mountain

The situation there in terms of security is one that is more difficult then others we are encountering. But we are most certainly working on that. We plan indeed also to try and get up to Lofa. Relief agencies have not been to Lofa for there years and most of the IDPs in Monrovia that have been in the camps are from the Lofa-Bomi area. They are refugees in guinea and also in the camps in Totota and Salala very largely coming out of Lofa as well. So its very important that one gets back there. It used to be the breadbasket of Liberia. So that's extraordinarily important. We can move only as we have access and we are to make sure we get the resources from abroad. But the limitation now is access. We do have modest resources to enable us to move ahead.

On the issue of the spread of HIV/AIDS, the availability of contraceptives to ensure that young girls protect themselves as more peacekeepers arrive

Respondent: Deji Popoola

Actually, that's a very good question basically because too often we do see that as a threat to survivor when we deal with emergency situations. We often do not pay adequate attention to that dimension. In Liberia what we are currently doing is to ensure that we have adequate supply of the HIV testing kits. But as I speak to you right now we have enough in country for almost everybody to be tested for the next six months. We just got that in last week. We are also mindful of the need for blood transfusion and as of Saturday, we managed to get in those blood supplies as well as the kits and in fact there was a drastic shortage of the pediatrics blood transfusion materials. We also managed to get that into the country with respect to condoms as we speak now, we have over half a million pieces of condoms and I can assure you that in the next one month we will have enough supply for this year and the next. We also want to share with you efforts of the UNFPA even in the period of these last "three wars" the UNFPA went into Sierra Leone to assess the reproductive health needs of Liberian refugees. We had from that experience come back well prepared for HIV/AIDS-related interventions and we are very poised and ready to assist.

We have a system working direct with communities and I would share with you the communities in SKDoe all the way to New Kru Town, we have national NGOs that we provide condoms to and are active not only in promoting reproductive usage and storage but also disposal which are of our concern as well. So, we have the community being covered and in due course we will spread as we go along.

Respondent: Cyrille Niameogo

The issue is not just condoms because we may have condoms for people to use but people may not use them. So I think there is a need for education and sensitization communications strategy for people to understand that it is for their own benefit to be using the condoms because sometimes you may find a man that says "No! No condom for me. It you want you can have sex but no condoms! So it's left with the girls to know that they need to protect myself. They have to use that. So the education and sensitization is very important and we are counting on the media to also help in making sure that people are enlightened.

Respondent: Moses Okello

May I also say in the refugee camps and the IDP camps there is also a program already going on. The refugee camps started earlier it is well advanced and in fact we have been providing condoms and the rest of that to the people. So this is an area that we have been addressing but we have to agree that there is a lot more to be done in the communities. I believe that you have a very key role yourselves to disseminate information regarding HIV/AIDS and the need for people to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

On the issue of having a budget for anti-AIDS media campaign

Respondent: Ross Mountain

There are several dimensions to this. One is there are some supplies available which UNFPA is giving. The World Health Organization is also engaged in that. There is a UNAIDS program which has not started which we will obviously seek to bring in. Again, our colleagues are dealing with that in the particular area. But is there enough money around to deal with everybody who needs condoms and treatment? No! Are there enough supplies to start that program? Yes! And I think this is something we have to develop and I think it is extremely important issue. When I was here 12 years ago, I feared we were looking to the end of the war then. And I feared that the greatest scourge that might be AIDS because even at that time Cote d'Ivoire had one of the highest incidences of AIDS in the region at that stage and refugees returning. This still remains the major concern.

On the issue of the infection rate of HIV/AIDS

Respondent: Deji Popoola

The government figure is 8.2%. We strongly believe and the AIDS program and the Ministry of Health has shared with us that the situation in Liberia is such that we have not been able to adequately capture the actual figure. We were not able to do a national survey for instance and you all know how long we have not been able to access Lofa and other parts of the country. We have a plan to undertake a national survey as soon as the situation permits.

Respondent: Fatoma Boley for WHO Resident Representative

Can I add some of the peacekeepers that are coming from countries where the HIV rate is much lower than Liberia? So, our commitment is not to the population of Liberia but to the entire humanitarian community.

Respondent: Deji Popoola UNFPA

Can I add to alleviate your fears? Janet (journalist) gave the impression that the peacekeepers are going to come and therefore spread the infection. Interestingly, DPKO, the UNAIDS peacekeeping office has a system whereby peace keepers are mandated to be tested by the sending country and that system not only tests but educates and raises awareness on the use of condoms as part of the educational package prior to deployment. My worry is how to deal with the situation in here because they will come in and we also have provision for adequate condom supply to accommodate their needs and indeed let me also say that USAID is supporting this initiative.

Under the UN regulation, the guidelines which is actually championed by UNAIDS, there are regulations and the WHO/UNAIDS/UNFPA guidelines do not prohibit peacekeepers with HIV/AIDS from being on peace keeping mission. But inherent in the system of deployment as established by the Department of Peace Keeping most sending countries will not send HIV positive persons on mission. But I don't want you good friends of media to get that information out there because it might lead to inappropriate unprotected sexual behavior by the girls out there so lets watch the information we send out there.

On the issue of lack of access whether as a consequence of unwillingness on the part of the warring factions to honor the peace agreement signed or is it due to insufficient troops

Respondent: Ross Mountain

There are currently insufficient troops to provide the security throughout the country that Liberians would wish and we would wish. There being sufficient troops and we are assuming that ECOMIL forces would be followed by the UN force which would be larger, the SRG Klein and the Secretary General is proposing 15,000 military throughout the country. Lets understand that it will take a number of months to mobilize assuming that that's going to be agreed next week. So pending that we are approaching this on the basis of negotiated access. I believe that the leadership who signed these agreements that have specifically talked about free and unfetter access of humanitarian are genuine in their agreements. But the communications between them and their commanders and the kids on the checkpoints is somewhat less than perfect to put it mildly. The checkpoints are not on the INTERNET. And we therefore can only operate on the basis of making sure as we go in those areas and that on ground deal very gingerly that the commander understands it and that the commander is able to agreed with it and is able to move on and convey this to the checkpoint and we move very deliberately in that way. And that's the approach we have had to adopt.

On the issue of the IDPs wanting ECOMIL to have a base in the camps

Respondent: Ross Mountain

ECOMIL sees its role as putting itself as I understand it between the factions. There is a frontline just south of Gbarnga and there are many Liberians affected by the insecurity there. We encourage their relocation up there. We talk about the camps around here, there are about 40-50 people in Salala there are about 50,000 people that had to come down the highway. There are about 100,000 Liberians displaced who probably need protection as much as people in Monrovia. So we are pleased they have done that. They have made every effort to try and deal with the humanitarian needs but they are limited in what they can do. We welcome what they have been doing and their willingness to respond to those kinds of needs.

On the issue of the number of IDPs in aTotota

Respondent: Ross Mountain

I am talking about the whole area that must be about 100,000 people. Two days ago there was an attack in the wake of the fighting between LURD and the government. In Kakata there was an attack into the camps in Salala that particularly hit a number of relief agencies. I've heard of about 5 vehicles taken from the Lutheran Hospital and Phebe hospital. Those vehicles were returned without their radios. The Phebe hospital was particularly targeted and I think all of us realize how important Phebe hospital has been up country for decades. It's an institution that had brave people doing difficult things throughout the civil war they had already been chased out of Gbarnga and have set themselves in Salala.

I believe there were 50 patients inside and as of last night no word is available of where the patients are. Two have died and the hospital was looted. Yesterday one of our focuses was to see what could be done particularly WHO, UNICEF, and NGO partners to restore the capacity of Phebe. That's really serious. Fortunately that attack coincided with ECOMIL going up there. It did not occasion a lot of people running away. I guess they were worried about where they would run. Run into Kakata or to Totota where they had already run from? They were between the rock and the hard place at that point. I would like to point out that in Monrovia people believe that all the incidents at the camps are related to fighters that are linked to the rebel movement. This is not so. There are the militias that are related to the government and the Minister of Defense seemed to recognized that himself. Last week have been the occasion of the looting and terrorizing of the IDP population. We need to recognize that the problem is not all there. Everybody needs to control his troops. The militias in particular are causing this problem.

On the issue of de-traumatizing child soldiers

Respondent: Mr. Cyrille Niameogo-UNICEF

With respect to children, unfortunately a lot of them have been involved in the war. Some are combatants. The others are witnesses to what had happened in their communities their parents and their relatives. As Ross mentioned in his opening remarks there is a program for child protection. Our problem is to get access to these children. Many of them are combatants with the different parties, on the government side on the LURD and MODEL. We are negotiating with them to make sure that we get access to these children to properly establish their profile because you have different categories of children: Those that have been there for long will need special care. And those that have been there for a short time will not need too much and you can get them back to school or into skills development in vocational training programs. We are working closely with Save the Children and with other partners to make sure that we implement these programs for all of those children.

On the issue of Bench mark to start to implement the program for child soldiers

Respondent: Cyrille Niameogo

Already there are a couple of children that have demobilized. They ran from the troops. We have taken care of these children a small group of them. But as soon as we have access to them we will start the program. We are in negotiation with the parties to actually gain access to them.

On the issue of immunization into areas where the peace keepers have not yet deployed

Respondent: Cyrille Niameogo

The program is still on going in Tubmanburg and the team is planning to move north towards Lofa. We are planning to start in Buchanan. Next the team will start immunization in Kakata, Totota and Salala. We have a plan to cover the entire country with WHO and the Ministry of Health working together but we cannot do it at once. We will do it gradually as we gain access to areas.

On the issue of general food distribution to host communities

Respondent: Justin Bagirishya

If we had unlimited resources we would have made provision for all and unfortunately this is not the case. So we have to go by prioritizing various categories of beneficiaries. We considered that those who had been living in these shelters outside Monrovia constitute a category that is in very bad shape. However we have also considered other programs that are going to address the food needs of those who would remain in Monrovia. We are going to continue food distribution for children under five, continue out interventions in the hospitals and orphanages and other institutions that are hosting vulnerable people. We are going to start emergency school feeding if the schools start opening so this would be another channel for giving food to the family. Additionally, we are going to cater to mothers, pregnant and lactating mothers through the MCH activities. We intend to launch together with our partners with the participation of UNDP in the exercise on food-for-work in Monrovia and would be expanded also in the environs.

On the issue of when to starting food- for- work

Respondent: Justin Bagirishya

Food-for-work. I have been in discussions with an international NGO, Merlin. We can start tomorrow if all of the ingredients are there.

On the issue of collaborating with a group calling itself National Relief Transport Refugee Agency (NATRAA) to distribute food

Respondent: Justin Bagisrishya

As I mentioned earlier, I will never, never again entertain any relations with this particular group. It's cheating people. Its taking money from people and this is unacceptable. I have now got their INTERNET address. I hope I will grab them physically and bring them to justice.

On the issue of a program for gender based violence.

Respondent: Moses Okello

I would say this is a collaborative effort but UNHCR has been doing this for quite sometime. It's not a new thing. We have an elaborate program that's been on going in conjunction with the IRC and other agencies. We have increased our capacity in terms of expertise. They are working with the women's groups. They had their first meeting yesterday with women's groups and that they are going to expand this. As you will appreciate UNHCR of course was here therefore for refugees. We are now in the context of which we are expanding to the IDPs and the communities because of the kind of situation we are in and this effort in my view started off very well. We believe that through the women communities and let me not forget the men's associations that are exploring we will be able to get into the communities to dissemination information related to sexual and gender based violence. I believe my colleague of UNFPA may have something to say.

Respondent: Deji Popoola

The other dimension to sexual and gender base violence is the curative. Specifically in terms of rape, UNFPA has brought in a descent consignment of emergency contraceptives the popularly known Morning After Pill. What that does in the case of rape is that it prevents pregnancy to be able to bring some semblance of stability. It's like without having the burden of pregnancy that was unplanned. We have adequate supply of emergency contraceptives. UNFPA has brought into Liberia a sizable consignment of antibiotics for the treatment of STI. In the cases of rape if it is properly handled the effect of the aggressive sexual interaction will not lead to the transmission of STIs as well. In collaboration with preventive aspect of gender base violence we also have reason to provide curitive services. In addition we also have NGOs that do provide counseling to those unfortunate women.

Respondent; Ross Mountain

Rape has been extraordinarily prevalent throughout the war from very young babies to very old women but also boys. This is something that we must understand amongst the public and it must stop. Our concern generally is the protection of civilians in crisis and this we see is a major part of what we are trying to do in the humanitarian side. Everybody should be involved in the protection aspect and reporting, including the media if I may in pointing out abuses and to try to get redress. Of course it's a larger issue of establishing the justice system. It's the kind of protection issues that we are ge