By Bill K. Jarkloh
The News (Monrovia)July 1, 2002
A member of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Adolfo Zinser of Mexico, says his mission in the sub-region has identified three main sources responsible for instability in the Mano River Union region, naming the violence in Liberia as the first and fore most of the three.
"We understand the meaning of this conflict and it is a source of a series of preoccupation," the UN Security Council Ambassador indicated, saying that the conflict in Liberia is a manifestation of instability in the Mano River Union.
Addressing a news conference at the Mamba Point Hotel last night, Ambassador Zinser, who chairs the Sanctions Committee on Sierra Leone, further noted that the second of these sources of instability in the subregion as "extreme socio-economic condition suffered by the populations of the three countries."
The visiting Security Council envoy also pointed to the harsh humanitarian situation in the subregion, conditions of human rights and minimum security for the population that are subject to, in some cases, extreme aggression and violence as another indication of instability to the subregion.
According to him, the UN Security Council considers very seriously the poor economic condition, adding that the United Nations has programs in each one of these areas, including Sierra Leone and the rest of the region.
"We are going to send the message to the United Nations that resources are not sufficient, that the task is so immense that we have to commit the international community to provide more resources," which, the ambassador continued, is dependent upon the success of what the UN has begun in neighboring Sierra Leone.
He told the journalists about the need for the improvement of conditions in Sierra Leone, particularly in Liberia and then in Guinea.
The Ambassador explained that he had earlier visited Guinea and held talks with the authorities there, just as he did in Sierra Leone and is expected to do in Liberia.
In response to a journalist's question concerning Liberia's accusation that Guinea is backing the Liberian rebels, he disclosed that he discussed with the Governments of Guinea and the other countries concerning what they expect of them.
He explained how discussions with the governments had focused on commitment to ECOWAS' call against the trafficking of weapons, the initiative of the Mano River Union countries and the Rabat Accord among countries of the Mano River Union.
He maintained that he manifested to the authorities of Guinea the encouragement to actively promote peace in the Mano River basin, but he was quick to state that the process would engender the framework for the three countries to agree to establish security measures and mutual responsibility to each other.
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