Washington, DC — A non-partisan coalition of U.S. groups and individuals is appealing to Americans across the country to contact Congress in support of a $200 million emergency aid package for war-torn Liberia.
"This is a matter of real urgency," said Vivian Lowery Derryck, co-convener of the coalition known as Liberia Watch and former head of the Africa Bureau at the U.S. Agency for International Development. "The fragile peace that has been established in Liberia, under the leadership of West African leaders, can only succeed if resources are mobilized to provide humanitarian assistance and disarmament and reconstruction."
The focus of current lobbying is an amendment to the $87 billion supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq earmarking $200 million for relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction" and for military assistance to Liberia.
The amendment is sponsored by Senators Lincoln Chafee, a Republican from Rhode Island and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee's foreign operations subcommittee. Cosponsors include Norm Coleman, Republican from Minnesota, and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a Democratic candidate for president.
"It is not too late for the United States to redeem its promise to Liberia," Chafee said in a statement earlier this month. "Violence has displaced one-third of the population, half the population is undernourished and there has been no reliable electricity or running water in Monrovia since 1990," he said. "We owe it to the people of Liberia to step in and make a meaningful commitment to help." He said the proposed $200 million appropriation for Liberia will be offset by reduced spending on other programs in the omnibus Iraq bill.
Liberia Watch, a loose coalition that includes non-governmental organizations like Africare and Bread for the World, as well as prominent individuals including former senior State Department officials, has been working for the past ten weeks to focus attention on Liberia and increase U.S. support for the peace effort. The group has generated more than 50 letters to President Bush and members of Congress urging recognition of "how important this is for Liberia and equally for the United States," Derryck said in an interview.
"This could be a win-win situation for the United States, gaining the respect of people all over the world by showing support for a country that has been a long standing and loyal America ally," said Derryck, who is currently senior vice president and director of public/private partnerships at the Washington-based Academy for Educational Development. "This is a bipartisan effort in which all voices are important," she said. "We urge everyone to contact their Senators' offices today."
Bernadette Paola, vice president of the Africa Society and another Liberia Watch participant, said the case for aiding Liberia is compelling. "It is imperative that our government indicate that saving lives and rebuilding countries is just as important in Africa as it is in Iraq," she said.
The Chafee-Leahy proposal is backed by Catholic Relief Services, a Baltimore-based agency of the U.S. Catholic community. "Passage of this amendment can help the United States fulfill its moral responsibility to ensure delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Liberia," the CRS president, Ken Hackett said in a statement.
A calculation of the total costs for disarming and demobilizing combatants and beginning post-war reconstruction in Liberia is being undertaken by the United Nations, and an assessment mission from the U.S. agency for International Development is traveling this week to Monrovia, the Liberian capital.
Testifying before the House Africa Subcommittee on October 2, Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner put forward the $200 million figure as a preliminary needs estimate of what the State Department wants to commit to Liberia over the next year. Initial internal allocations of how the $200 million might be spent include $20 million for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of armed combatants; $15 million to assist the new interim government; $56 million to retrain and equip the Liberian armed forces; $35 million for development assistance, including education and health; $19 million for refugee resettlement; $15 million for a civilian police force, the judiciary and prisons; $10 million for agriculture and forests; $4 million for audits of various government entities and $3 million for election preparations; and the remainder for a variety of other projects.
But these funds are not currently available. The only funds that have been identified to be reprogrammed for Liberia are $12 million from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and $4 million from the Africa Bureau, State Department officials said. To get anywhere close to the $200 million level, Congress will have to act, the officials said.
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The administration is seeking support for Liberia's transition and reconstruction from a number of other governments, as well as the World Bank and private corporations. "Coca Cola has told us they want to find a role in this endeavor," one senior official said. "We hope other companies will come on board as well." Current planning calls for convening an international donors conference for Liberia in Washington in early December.
But the success of that meeting will likely depend on whether funding for Liberian reconstruction has won Congressional endorsement. "We know from past experience that pledging conferences succeed in generating support from others when our government can put actual money on the table," said Derryck, "not pledges, which may or may not be fulfilled, but real money."
