By Tara Boyle
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- If sustainable stability is not brought to war-ravaged Liberia, the region is "doomed," U.N. special envoy to Liberia Jacques Klein said June 17.

Weighing the benefits and dangers of the high-stakes international peacekeeping effort he is leading in West Africa, Klein bluntly told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, "This has to work, and it's probably our last chance."

Klein, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer and Air Force major general, talked in detail about the progress that has been made in Liberia since the United Nations officially took over peacekeeping operations there in October 2003. The U.N. Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) is feeding more than 600,000 people a day and has disarmed 46,000 ex-combatants, he said. In addition, more than one million children under the age of 15 have been immunized against measles, and nearly 18,000 refugees have returned to Liberia from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.

At the same time, the nation's school structure has "broken down," three-fourths of the population lives below the poverty line and unemployment is rampant, said Klein, who blamed former President Charles Taylor for undermining Liberia's economy and social structure.

"He criminalized all of Liberia. He criminalized Liberian society. When you don't pay a nation for two years -- schoolteachers, clerks, police, medical staff, educators -- people live on bribes and corruption." Klein also said Liberia's healing process will not begin until Taylor, who is currently in exile in Nigeria, is brought to Sierra Leone, where he has been indicted for crimes against humanity.

A further impediment to recovery in Liberia has been the failure of donors to meet the pledges they made in February. Klein urged donors to fulfill their commitments when he met the U.N. Security Council in New York two weeks ago and reiterated that message during his presentation in Washington, noting that only a small portion of the $520 million pledged has been received.

"I need to see the money. We need these pledges fulfilled," he said. "To put in a water system, a 40-inch pipeline into Monrovia [the capital of Liberia] would cost $142 million. To rebuild the electrical grid, which is totally destroyed throughout the country, that will be $65-$70 million. And it goes on and on."

Some problems, such as the overcrowded penal institutions, have been particularly difficult to address because donors have little interest in paying for new prisons, he said, while some programs, such as those to protect the environment, are well intentioned but do not meet Liberians' basic needs.

Klein urged the international community to focus on programs that improve the quality of life for Liberians. "People have to survive. They have to eat and they have to have drinking water. Those are the first concerns," he said.

Despite the slow flow of aid to Liberia, a number of specific improvements have been made, Klein noted. Two courts are up and running, a civilian police academy is due to open in July, a 911 emergency phone system has been set up, and 19 prison wardens have been trained. An FM radio station is broadcasting nationwide and a free press has been established, with 25 newspapers and two Monrovia-based television stations.

Major challenges still remain, including the creation of a strong judiciary, which will be particularly crucial to the nation's future economic growth, Klein said. "We will not have foreign investment, obviously, until foreign investors are convinced that there's a safe and secure environment, that a lawsuit can be adjudicated properly."

Finding jobs for former combatants and the nation's large youth population is also critically important, he noted. The United States is sponsoring a nearly $28 million job-creation program inspired by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which gave jobs to unemployed Americans during the Great Depression. The new program will assist 20,000 people, including 10,000 ex-combatants. Specific reintegration programs have also been created for women, children, and youth.