Liberia's deserting soldiers worry President Johnson- Sirleaf

As the United Nations wraps up its operations in Liberia, the country`s newly created army is threatened by a spate of mass desertions.

The lack of adequate facilities, accommodation and social constraints of long stay from families are among reasons identified for the problem.

After its 14 year civil war, the old Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) which was said to be highly factionalised was dissolved and a new one created.

Following persistent media reports, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf last week admitted soldiers in the army were deserting and blamed the situation on a combination of social factors.

She said this poses threats to the development of Liberia`s security, which is being prepared to take over from the gradually departing UN mission.

The civil war saw the west African country`s military reduced to a group of untrained, ill disciplined and ill-equipped men and women which the international community has been spending millions of dollars to rehabilitate.

Some 2,169 men and women were trained within the last six years as part of the new Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL).

At least 226 personnel out of this deserted the force within the last few years, representing an attrition rate of 10.42 per cent.

Only 2 per cent of this was linked to causes of deaths and various discharges (honourable, dishonourable, and medical).

The majority 8.67 per cent were due to absence without leave (AWOL) and drop from roll (DFR), caused by demotivating factors.

Vowed answer

President Sirleaf has vowed to find a solution for this.

“We are treating this with urgency as a matter of priority,” President Sirleaf said.

"Greater emphasis will continue to be placed on the welfare of our military personnel and their families in the years ahead.”

Last week, the Liberian president appointed her new Minister of National Defence, Brownie Samuka, as the Lead Coordinator for the Government's Joint Transitional Co-Group to work alongside UNMIL, [the United Nations Mission in Liberia], as part of preparation for the force's transitional process.

The group also includes the heads of ministries related to justice and security, including directors of the police, National Security Agency and the Commissioner of Immigration.

The UN has since indicated its intention to chop up to a billion dollars off its peacekeeping budget this year by closing or slicing many missions abroad.

Liberia is among fragile, war torn countries where the UN is considering reducing its presence in owing to pressure from major powers who are adopting spending cuts policies.

The US has been involved in the training of the Liberian army from scratch. It is believed to have spent $200m.

Apart from the task of safeguarding the peace trend being left behind by the UN mission, the new AFL and its sister security outfits will have to deal with increasing threats posed by international events, like drug traffic and terrorism.

But first, in order to meet the challenges of the transition process, the size of the AFL will have to be increased and the attrition rate tackled, noted President Sirleaf.

Heavily reliant

The UNMIL mandate had to be extended for a year, last year, to allow the Liberian authorities to prepare its national security agencies to take over from the 8,000 strong UN peacekeeping forces which the government has been heavily reliant on it for the past eight years after the war.

President Sirleaf said her government`s target is to have the AFL reaches its minimum operational strength to enable it become reasonably operational by 2014.

The Liberian police was put to a crucial test during the run-off presidential election in November, when forces opened fire on opposition protesters. They had to be restrained by UNMIL peacekeepers, raising concerns about their readiness to operate independently.

There are also concerns about the slow pace of the judicial system, which task UNMIL has to tackle with the judiciary to reduce the number of people detained in prison without being sent for trial.

“We must strengthen our partnership and improve dialogue with our neighbouring sisterly states in the Mano River Union. Such initiative will enhance cross-border confidence and improve security within our sub-region,” President Sirleaf said.

But the Liberian military is also having to handle issues of trust, given a polarised population.

A top human rights lawyer recently complaint against the government`s alleged violation of the country’s constitution by having a Nigerian General, Major General Suraj Abdurrahman, as army Chief of Staff.

“We cannot continue to build an army with mistrusts when Liberians said they could not trust our past national army,” said Liberia`s Defence Ministry spokesman David Dahn, while denying that the constitution had being breached.

Dhan said Liberia was in a ‘‘unique circumstances’’ occasioned by the ‘‘fraticidal civil war.”

“When you have a crisis like what we went through, when the military was fictionalized, you could not take a Gio, Krahn or a Gola man to make him the Chief of Staff when the army was divided…How could we find a stabilizing force when only the sub-region could be trusted … where could we have turned?”