UNJLC Liberia
Bulletin 12
29 October to 4 November 2003

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UNJLC bulletins aim to provide a concise weekly overview of UNJLC activities and the present logistical situation in regard to the crisis in Liberia. In addition sector/country specific reports will be released regularly in order to provide in-depth coverage of priority areas.

Contact details for all UNJLC offices are available on the UNJLC website.

CONTENTS

• 1. HIGHLIGHTS
• 2. SECURITY
• 3. AIR OPERATIONS
• 4. SEA PORT OPERATIONS
• 5. BORDER CROSSINGS, CUSTOMS AND IMMIGRATION
• 6. TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
• 7. LOGISTICS CO-ORDINATION
• 8. CIVIL-MILITARY COORDINATION
• 9. FUEL (Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene) / COMMODITY PRICES
• 10. LIBERIA UNJLC INTERNATIONAL STAFF
• 11. OTHER

1. HIGHLIGHTS

The Transitional Government, headed by Chairman Gyude Bryant, has announced the reduction in prices of consumer commodities such as rice, fuel and petroleum products. See below for more details.

WFP and UNJLC have initiated discussions with the authorities at Spriggs Payne Airport in Monrovia for the resumption of humanitarian air operations. The Airport is currently being used by UNMIL and its close proximity to Monrovia City is an advantage.

The Status of Force Agreement (SOFA) made between the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the Government of Liberia has been distributed by UNMIL. On behalf of the UN humanitarian community, UNJLC will be exploring possibilities of how privileges and immunities can be extended to the UN agencies.

2. SECURITY

A two-day joint security assessment mission was conducted by FSOs from UNHCR, UNDP and WFP on 1 and 2 November.  The mission visited Gbarnga, Saclepea, Ganta and Zorzor. With the exception of Saclepea, the general infrastructure in these areas has been badly damaged.  They are now mainly inhabited by militias.  Due to the fighting between MODEL and government troops in Saclepea and Ganta, there is a mass exodus of IDPs along the Ganta-Saclepea route. 

Fighting is reported to have spread to the Tapeta area and this may pose a humanitarian crisis.

Monrovia remains in UN Security Phase IV, while the rest of Liberia continues to be designated as Phase V.

3. AIR OPERATIONS

WFP's Regional Transport Officer and UNJLC staff visited Monrovia Spriggs Payne Airfield on 21 October 2003 to assess the possibilities of resuming humanitarian air operations to this airport. The airport has been used by humanitarian flights in the past. It is located in downtown Monrovia, about 15 minutes away from the United Nations Offices in Mamba Point. The runway is about 6,000 feet long.  Currently, a small UNMIL contingent of Nigerian troops, including an air force officer is deployed at the airport. Spriggs Payne airfield is in an adequate state of repair and is fully operational for potential humanitarian air operations. It is presently being used by UNMIL and DHL flights.

UNJLC and WFP initiated discussions with the airport authorities at Spriggs Payne Airport on behalf of the humanitarian community.  UNJLC will follow up with meetings with the relevant Ministerial authorities to negotiate landing and handling charge exemptions for humanitarian flights in order for air operations to commence in the near future. The close proximity of Spriggs Payne will be beneficial to humanitarian flights' customers. 

The WFP Regional Transport Officer, based in Abidjan, arrived in Monrovia to meet with counterparts in UNHCR and UNMIL to discuss means of de-conflicting air assets and schedules in the region. 

The transport from Monrovia to Freetown of 250 Sierra Leonean refugees for UNHCR commenced on 29 October. Twenty persons were flown last week and the transport is expected to continue over the next few weeks.

WFP will assist UNHCR in transporting non-food items from Freetown to Monrovia on 5 November. 

An updated Passenger Request Form is available on the UNJLC website. 

Initial information is being collected for use in the compilation of a comprehensive planning map of Roberts International Airport (RIA). This will take a form similar to that of the UNJLC Freeport of Monrovia planning map, downloadable from the UNJLC website.

The airport authority at RIA is currently headed by an interim administration. This shall remain in place pending the nomination of a management team.  Mr. Hamed Wilson is acting as the Managing Director of the Airport. He can be contacted at: +377-47-512012.

Contacts: WFP West Africa Air Service contacts are as follows:

4. SEA PORT OPERATIONS

UNJLC met with the new Managing Director of the Monrovia Freeport Authority to discuss the pending agreement for warehousing space for UN agencies at the Port. 

The new Managing Director for Monrovia Freeport has been appointed. Mr. Clayee Z. Doe can be contacted at Tel: +377 47 534428. The Deputy Director for Operations is Mr. Harrison Luo. Harrison.

Contacts for the Ghanaian Security contingent (UNMIL) at the Freeport are as follows:

Commanding Officer -Lt Col James Adoinama: +377 47 530 657

Operations Officer - Major Louman Gbetanu: +377 47 530 654

Military Intelligence Officer - Capt Errigton Commil: +377 47 530 649

5. BORDER CROSSINGS, CUSTOMS AND IMMIGRATION

UNJLC met with the new Commissioner of Immigration, Abraham B. Mitchell, to brief him about the existing draft Customs and Immigration Guide compiled and completed with the cooperation of his predecessor. The Commissioner allocated an assistant to support the process of reviewing the Guide and streamlining procedures in the emergency period for Liberia. UNJLC will be working in close conjunction with UN and NGO partners to reform and streamline the existing Immigration procedures. 

UNJLC met with the Commissioner of Customs, Ms. Fatu Gaddens White, who continues to serve at this post, to review the Customs and Immigration Guide. As with Immigration, UNJLC will work closely with the Commissioner in order to streamline the current process.   A Customs Expert seconded to UNJLC will draft policy proposals to the Government following the finalisation of the Guide. 

The first draft of the UNJLC Customs and Immigration Guide is available on the website. 

Liberia's borders with its neighbouring countries remain closed due to the unstable security conditions in most of the country.  Customs and Immigration officials responsible for these entry points reside in Monrovia and other locations in Liberia.

6. TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE

The UNJLC/GTZ transport survey is now available from the UNJLC office.  The survey is also accessible on the website.

7. LOGISTICS CO-ORDINATION

The twelfth weekly Joint Logistics Meeting was held at 11.00 hours in the HOC, ground floor of the WFP building.  UNDP is processing an arrangement with GEPCO and Mobil for the possible supply of duty free fuel to NGOs.  The participants at the meeting were informed of the on-going conceptualisation and execution of the Operations Centre that is expected to be established in conjunction with UNOCHA. This Centre will address problems and queries of the humanitarian community relating to security, movement, information, and logistics. Concerns were also raised over certain expediter fees being charged to local NGOs at the Roberts International Airport. UNJLC and WFP have begun the process of initiating humanitarian flight operations at Spriggs Payne Airfield in Monrovia.  Members of the humanitarian community interested in flying out of Monrovia can do so by contacting UN CMCoord Officer, Willy Peerens, at +377 47 530434.  UNMIL helicopters are flying to isolated parts of Liberia on a weekly basis. Negotiations for the use of other UNMIL assets, including vehicles and warehouses, are in process. 

UNJLC Coordination of the road and bridge assessments within Liberia is in its first phase. Training of the assessors is underway and is being conducted by HIC, UNMIL and UNHCR GIS officers. It is comprised of instruction in the use of GPS, digital cameras, and briefings on the assessment process and data forms compiled by HIC, UNMIL and UNJLC. UNJLC has consulted with UNMIL, UN agencies and NGOs to determine the sequence in which supply routes that should be assessed first. It is expected that the training of the assessors will go on for another week. Funding for this first phase of the Project is available.

"An Agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Liberia on the Status of the United Nations Mission in Liberia" was signed between the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) and the Liberian government on 13 October 2003. This Status of Force Agreement (SOFA) was recently made available to the UN community by UNMIL. This Agreement outlines the provisions and applications on UNMIL status, privileges and immunities, travel and transport and communications. UNJLC will be exploring possibilities of how these provisions can benefit UN agencies.

8. CIVIL-MILITARY COORDINATION

The "General guidance for the interaction between humanitarian organisations and military forces operating in Liberia" was approved in the UNCT meeting on 29 October. This document will now be presented in due course in the appropriate forum (UNMIL; HAC; HOC; local NGO meetings).

The Bangladeshi military hospital stationed in Monrovia has been overwhelmed by the influx of civil patients, which had a detrimental impact on the functioning of this hospital. This issue was discussed in the Health and Nutrition Coordination meeting on 29 October. The forum concluded that the treatment of civilians in this hospital should be stopped immediately and that patients should be referred to the civilian hospitals in the immediate environs. In addition, the importance of UNMIL presence in this forum was highlighted. 

The UNMIL Force Commander, Lieutenant-General Opande, briefed the HOC meeting on the UNMIL deployment plan. Pending the arrival of troops, the first priority will be the deployment to Gbarnga, followed by Lofa. Zwedru, Harper and the remaining ports are the next areas for deployment. The deployment to the city of Buchanan in the very near future was also announced. 

On 1 November, the UN Civil-Military Coordination meeting discussed the procedures to be followed when urgent UNMIL assistance is required, following a failed intervention on 30 October. This new procedure was presented in the HOC meeting on 3 November. 

UNMIL Emergency Response HOTLINES:

Duty Officer HQ Sector 1: +377 47 530 173
Duty Officer HQ UNMIL :   +377 47 532 313

UNMIL Force Commander - Lieutenant General Opande, Kenya.

Sector 1 Commander - Brigadier General Festus Okonkwo, Nigeria.

Civil-Military Co-operations Officers - Capt Lapage: +377 47 532 516
                                                    Col Whobrey 

UN Civil-Military Co-ordination - Willy Peerens: +377 47 530 434

WFP Civil-Military Liaison - Albert Fiawosime: +377 47 530 209

UNHCR Civil-Military Liaison - Harry Leefe: +377 47 530 180

UNJLC Civil-Military Liaison - Oleksandr Grebenyuk: +377 47 532 378

9. FUEL (Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene) / COMMODITY PRICES

The Chairman of the National Transitional Government of Liberia, Charles Gyude Bryant, has announced reduction in the prices of essential consumer commodities, such as rice, fuel and petroleum products.  

The retail price of rice will not exceed the following:
1. parboiled pussawa (USA long grain rice) rice: US$ 19 down from US$ 21 per bag
2. butter rice:    US$ 18 down from US$20 per bag  
3. white rice:     US$ 17 down from US$20 per bag

He also declared an open market to all those who wish to import rice into the country.

The retail for petroleum products is as follows:
1. retail price for a gallon of diesel fuel should not exceed US$2.20
2. retail price for a gallon of kerosene should not exceed US$2.10
3. retail price for a gallon of gasoline should not exceed US$2.25

Costs for general transportation are also expected to decrease.

The exchange rate to the US $ dropped from L $ 43.00 on 28 October to L $ 40.00 on 4 November.

10. LIBERIA UNJLC INTERNATIONAL STAFF

      David Pittfield: david.pittfield@wfp.org pittfield@hotmail.com Mobile: +377 47 530 093
      Peter Schaller: Monrovia.guest19@wfp.org Mobile: + 377 47 534 090
      Matthew Dee: matthew.dee@wfp.org m_dee99@yahoo.com Mobile: +377 47 530 187
      Carole Harris: carole.harris@wfp.org Mobile: +377 47 530 092
      Victor Cole: victor.cole@wfp.org Mobile: +377 47 531 423
      Oleksandr Grebenyuk: oleksandr.grebenyuk@wfp.org Mobile: +377 47 532 378 
      Farzana Rasheed: farzana.rasheed@wfp.org Mobile: +377 47 531458

UNJLC Offices are located on the ground floor of the WFP building, UN Drive, Mamba Point, Monrovia.

11. OTHER

The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) presently has 4,500 troops deployed in the country and is expected to increase its numbers to 15,000 by early next year. By this time, it is expected that the process of disarmament, de-mobilisation and reintegration of Liberia's estimated 38,000 combatants will also begin. A National Commission on Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) is to be set up to oversee this programme. This will include representatives of the three warring parties in Liberia, the Economic Community of West African States, (ECOWAS) and the African Union.  The DDR programme will be carried out by the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

The transitional government headed by Chairman Gyude Bryant continues to be established. Since 14 October, the process of nominations and appointments for government posts has been taking place. Last week’s Bulletin provided names of the senior officials from the key ministries.  Further appointments are outlined below in an updated contact list. Telephone numbers have been provided as were available at the time:

ABOUT UNJLC
UNJLC is an inter-agency facility reporting, in the current emergency, to the Humanitarian Coordinator for Liberia, and overall to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. Its mandate is to coordinate and optimise the logistics capabilities of humanitarian organisations in large-scale emergencies. UNJLC operates under the custodianship of WFP who are responsible for the administrative and financial management of the Centre. UNJLC is funded from voluntary contributions channelled through WFP. The UNJLC project document for Liberia can be viewed on the UNJLC website (www.unjlc.org).