Following the recent pronouncement made on the BBC by Guinea's military leader Gen. Musa Dadis Kamara that there are attempts by rebel forces at the Liberian border to oust him, the Force Commander of UNMIL has indicated that there is no such situation and that the security situation at the border is stable.

LT/Gen ATM Zahirul Alam and his men had been busy conducting investigation and verifying the statement made by the Guinean leader and his findings have shown that all is normal at the border. According to him, contrary to the information emanating Guinea about planned attempts to dethrone his administration, there is complete stable security atmosphere at the Liberia-Guinea Border.

Force Commander Alam told local journalists Thursday at UNMIL Headquarters that in response to information from the BBC, they went beyond the borders to counter check that report, but found nothing like rebel or armed activities going on along the two country's border.

On the basis of the report, he said "We sent out patrols and checked the information with the Government of Liberia. On 13-15 of July, 2009, we had eight joint border meetings with Guinea."

He noted that the meeting was held under good atmosphere and that there is good spirit of cooperation just like in any other time and they have expressed no intention along the borderland so far that every thing is good, there is no indication of any such thing along the border.

Commenting on other issue as it relates to the mission's cooperation with the Liberia National Police, Mr.Alam stated "UNMIL has always been cooperating with the LNP and the United Nations Police (UNPOL) in patrolling around Monrovia and its environs to detect and arrest any situation that may tend to cause problem in the City of Monrovia.

According to Force Commander Alam, his men have been working with LNP to respond to armed robbery incidents and that they together brought down the incident of robbery down. However, he noted that armed robbery is still a constant factor that is happening, but at least at a minimal level as compared to what it was.

"UNMIL is ready to extend its cooperation and support to back the LNP and UNPOL to mitigate the situation and to do every thing possible to reduce the cases of armed robberies. We have noticed in the past small incident of murder and other mob violence," he said. Making reference to such events in Gbarnga, LAC and Harper, he said UNMIL was available to either monitor or bring the situation under control.