UN Mission Head Klein Urges New Government to Abolish Army

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
November 5, 2003
Posted to the web November 5, 2003
Monrovia

Jacques Klein, the head of the United Nations mission in Liberia, urged the
country's transitional government on Wednesday to abolish the national
army, saying soldiers only "play cards and plot coups."

Outlining plans to disarm Liberia's three armed factions after 14 years of
civil war, Klein said all the country needed was a decent police force and
a border security force of 600 to 700 men.

"If I had to give advice to the government of Liberia, I would say you do
not need an army," the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General
told a news conference. "Armies sit around playing cards and plotting
coups. What Liberia needs is a strong state border service to guard its
borders against smuggling, illegal migration and cross-border combatants."

"You do not need an army. Armies are a waste of time and money," Klein
stressed. Earlier this week, in a BBC interview, he labelled the fighters
of Liberia's former government and two rebel groups as "thieves, murderers
and criminals."

Klein said that like the army, Liberia's current police force, estimated at
3,500 to 4,000 strong, would be demobilised. In its place, he said, a UN
force of 1,150 international policeman would train and establish a
completely new police force, comprised of recruits from throughout Liberia.

This would take over internal security following the holding of fresh
elections in two years time.

Klein urged Liberia to become the first country in Africa to abolish its
army, noting that the government had no quarrels or territorial disputes
with neighbouring Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire. He said the
government should make a formal declaration to this effect.

"I think it would be very dramatic for Liberia to say we are the first
African state that has no intention of attacking our neighbours. That is
what armies do. But we do want secure and stable borders," Klein said.

All Liberia needed, he added, was a battalion-strong border security force,
recruited from scratch, and equipped with three frigates to protect the
country's fisheries and offshore waters.

Klein, a former US air force general, urged the United States to take
responsibility for training and equipping such a force. He said he would
make formal proposals to US ambassador John Blaney to that effect.

The UN supremo in Liberia said that ideally the entire border security
force should undergo training overseas at an institution such as the Fort
Benning military academy in the United States, to ensure that it was
competent and professional in its approach.

"I would advocate not training them here. I would advocate putting together
a battalion and taking to the United States to a place like Fort Benning
for six months, training them into a highly professional unit that
understands the role of a soldier in a democratic society, that your job is
to protect the citizens and not to kill them," Klein said.

The UN estimates that there are approximately 38,000 gunmen in Liberia
awaiting disarmament following the signature of a peace agreement in August
between the government of former president Charles Taylor and two rebel
movements; Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the
Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL).

Klein confirmed that the UN peacekeeping force in Liberia (UNMIL) would
start to demobilise and disarm fighters of all three factions in "early
December" with the establishment of three separate camps to receive and
process government, LURD and MODEL fighters.

He said the new UN police commissioner for Liberia, Mark Croker of the
United States, would arrive in Monrovia on Sunday.


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