Monrovia – The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) formally turned over security responsibilities to the Liberian Government at a ceremony in Monrovia on July 1.
Thirteen years after the end of the civil war, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said the country is prepared for that responsibility though only about one-third of planned goals have been met.
A turnover of security responsibilities does not mean the UNMIL ends, but rather it will shift into an advisory role for the Liberian government.
Widespread corruption continues to afflict the country. Police officers regularly solicit bribes from motorists and elected officials face indictment for alleged involvement in a bribery scheme with a foreign company.
But for the first time since the 1980s, a stable government controls the safety of Liberians.
Thirteen years ago, a government emerged from a devastated and exhausted country. Sirleaf acknowledged the challenges ahead but noted the significance of the July 1f occasion to an audience of several hundred government, UN and foreign representatives at City Hall across the street from UNMIL headquarters.
“Today’s event is a testament to the enormous work and progress made by this government since 2006 to ensure a stable and peaceful country, a country where all can live and move freely without harassment, a country where freedom of the press and the media is guaranteed, a country that provides opportunities for all to contribute to its development,” Sirleaf said.
UNMIL began after the 2003 ouster of former President Charles Taylor, who was later tried and imprisoned for war crimes. It reached a peak of about 16,000 personnel in 2007. Less than 2,000 remain in Liberia now.
The Liberian government needs to address several ongoing issues in order to maintain progress and build confidence in its ability to govern the country effectively, according to Farid Zarif, a representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
He specifically mentioned that better “intelligence” and “early warning” systems could settle disputes before they became violent.
More work remains to control weapons both in private and government hands, he added. It’s up to the government of Liberia to make laws and also enforce them in a way that builds confidence among the population, according to Zarif.
“Sustained political commitment is needed to both build on gains made in the security sector and to create the conditions for long-lasting stability and peace in Liberia,” he said.
The international force helped establish peace in a country ravaged by 14 years of civil war, but it brought problems as well.
Large numbers of male peacekeepers led to a surge in prostitution among Liberian women, especially in Monrovia where tens of thousands of girls and women engaged in transactional sex with peacekeepers.
Many UN personnel paid as little as ten Liberian dollars to young girls who were desperate for any sort of income.
The United Nations investigated few cases of alleged sexual abuse per official policy requiring a formal complaint.
Critics ask how uneducated and impoverished girls and women would be able to navigate this formal complaint process considering their lack of education and legal advisement.
It remains unclear how much high-ranking UN officials knew about the role of peacekeepers in encouraging widespread prostitution among girls as young as the early teens.
Transition also comes at an awkward time for Sirleaf.
As the UNMIL draw downs, political tensions linger. The recent Sable Mining corruption saga involves the House Speaker Alex Tyler, the chairman of President Sirleaf’s political party — and her own stepson. A stalemate has resulted between the legislative and executive branches of government.
The House of Representatives hasn’t had a regular session in three weeks. Tyler says Sirleaf is taking advantage of the allegations against him in order to oust him from the position of speaker. He has accused her — without offering any evidence — of bribing other lawmakers as part of this alleged conspiracy.
This Sable Mining corruption saga has caused a huge distrust between the government and the ordinary Liberian.
Normally on such large state occasions, the speaker sits close to the president but at the July 1 ceremony, Tyler sat far to the right of Sirleaf. UN officials sat in between the two. Distance both literal and metaphorical separated Tyler and Sirleaf.
She acknowledged the need for political stability and cooperation in remarks mirroring Zarif’s at times.
Challenges remain but Liberia has accomplished much since 2003 when official institutions and services did not exist and millions of Liberians had to rebuild their lives after a brutal civil war, according to Sirleaf. The Ebola crisis presented yet another challenge, Sirleaf said.
“Against this background our security institutions struggled against very difficult odds to meet their quota of training new men and women in preparation for UNMIL transition,” she said. “We knew UNMIL would not be in Liberia forever.”