1:30 P.M. EST
Real Audio of Briefing
MR. DENIG: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. Later on this week, as a matter of fact, tomorrow and Friday, there's going to be a very important conference in New York City -- the International Reconstruction Conference on Liberia.
We're very fortunate today to have a briefing on this subject, and even more fortunate to have two very prominent individuals here for the briefing. We have Andrew Natsios, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, and we have the Liberian Foreign Minister, Mr. Thomas Nimely, with us as well.
Each gentleman will have brief opening remarks, and after that will be delighted to take your questions.
Mr. Natsios.
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Thank you very much. As you know, the pledging conference will take place on Thursday and Friday at which the donor governments and the new Liberian transition government will meet and discuss the commitment made toward the reconstruction of the country.
Liberia has been through a 14-year civil war. It was once classified, in the 1970s, as a middle-income country. It is now regarded as a failed state. The 3 million, 3.1 million people of Liberia have been profoundly affected by the conflict. A quarter of a million people have lost their lives during the civil war. Most were civilian noncombatants.
1.3 million, almost half the population of the country, have been displaced or are refugees. Abductions, torture, rape and human rights atrocities have taken place on a massive scale.
It is estimated that at least one in ten children may have been recruited into militias at one time or another. A similar percentage has been traumatized being -- by seeing families and friends murdered or raped.
No one can understand what the country has been through unless they've been there. I was there when I was in the NGO community, where we ran programs in my NGO in the mid-1990s, so I saw it at its worst.
An enormous effort will be required by the international community to assist Liberia in conquering the obstacles that remain toward reconstruction. This is, however, the best opportunity the country has had in a very long time since the civil war started toward a hopeful future. Critical to this -- the most important thing -- is in the security sector.
If we do not do successful disarmament and demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of former combatants, the reconstruction is not going to work, and it won't work for several reasons:
One is, civilians won't feel secure enough to do what they have to do reconstruct the country. Secondly, one militia is not going to -- typically, militias are connected to ethnic groups or parties -- one group is not going to disarm if the other groups don't disarm because they will feel at risk without their weapons to protect them. The only solution is to disarm everyone; and that's what the plan is.
A whole generation has been lost of the Liberian people, particularly the children, in terms of school, in terms of healthcare, and so rehabilitation and reintegration programming must repair the fabric of the society that has been torn apart over these 14 years. That means the resettlement of internally displaced people, the repatriation of refugees and other war-affected groups.
This is an unusual conflict in that there are, in addition to the number of child soldiers there are, there are as many as a thousand women soldiers, which we do not typically see in these conflicts in Africa.
We should not overlook how important it will be for the national transition government of Liberia to play a leadership role in the process. We have learned over the years that if donors and international agencies -- UN, NGOs -- go in and try to reconstruct a country themselves, it will fail. It only succeeds if the people of the country take leadership and the outside groups work with them. This is not our country. This is their country. This is Liberia.
So it's Liberians that have to lead the reconstruction effort. And that is a critically important factor and principle that we need to observe every day that we work in the country. If we empower the Liberian people to reconstruct their own country, the chances of success dramatically increase because then it will be their reconstruction, not a reconstruction imposed on them from the outside that they may not support.
Critical to all of this -- I have to say -- is the economy. Unless jobs are produced and young men who tend to join militias are employed, we are going to have trouble with the longer-term security of the country. Liberia does have natural wealth, and if that natural wealth can be properly moved through the public treasury in a transparent way and used for the public good, then a lot can be accomplished.
I do want to say that the United States will commit over $445 million at the pledging conference Thursday and Friday. $200 million of that is for reconstruction, rehabilitation, humanitarian services, reintegration of refugees and displaced people. And then $245 million, which has already been appropriated is the U.S. commitment to pay the assessed peacekeeping costs for the -- it's now, Minister, did you say 10,000 have already arrived of the peacekeeping troops?
MINISTER NIMELY: Right.
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: And we expect another 5,000?
MINISTER NIMELY: 5,000.
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: 5,000. So 15,000 troops do cost money, and the U.S. will contribute $245 million toward that for a total of $445.
I would point out that the actual reconstruction budget, not the peacekeeping budget, the reconstruction budget, is $487 million, of which the United States is pledging $200 million.
None of the $200 million we're pledging have we spent already. This is new money. We've already spent $100 million, and we're pledging an additional $200 million that has not yet been spent toward the $487 million reconstruction price tag, over a two-year period, that is the estimate of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund's assessment. That's a two-year program. And so 40 percent, more than 40 percent of the cost of reconstruction will be provided by the U.S. Government's pledge.
I might add that the EU has already pledged $120 million toward it, so we're already -- we already have $320 million of the $487 million required for a physical reconstruction, which is a good place to be the day before the pledging conference starts.
Thank you very much.
Minister.
MINISTER NIMELY: Thank you. I want to thank the international community, most especially, the United States Government, the ECOWAS and the EU, for giving Liberia the opportunity to reassess its own conditions.
We've been here five, about five days now, and we see a lot of enthusiasm from the international community to give Liberia hope. We do need hope and we need hope as of yesterday.
There's a lot of progress taking place on the ground in Liberia. As we have already been told, the 10,000 troops have been deployed within the rural parts of Liberia. The citizens of the country are very happy -- very, very happy to receive the UNMIL troops. The combatants are also extremely happy and ready to disarm.
You may have heard a couple of weeks ago of some incident that occurred in Monrovia. It had nothing to do with the combatants refusing to disarm. The UN troops were actually anticipating a thousand combatants to be disarmed and 10,000 showed up. And that was a very good commitment on the part of the combatants, and the system was overwhelmed, and it had to be halted. And the combatants were disheartened that they were not disarmed to receive their financial package on that very day. And that resulted to the incident. However, UNMIL was able to recoup and to rehash the situation. About 11,000 combatants have already been disarmed in Monrovia.
At the very time that they closed down the disarmament, 400 were already into the camp, and so they had to keep the 400 into the camp for a transitional period, and they were already disarmed. So we're talking about 11,700, roughly, that have been disarmed.
The disarmament process is irreversible. The peace process for Liberia is irreversible because there is a national character within the government. All of the factions in the civil society and the political parties are currently being represented within the government. And I believe there is some level of transparency that is taking place to ensure that good governance take place.
And of course, when we talk about good governance, we will need assistance -- a lot of assistance on all levels -- to ensure that good governance takes place within the two years that we will be in power to ensure that the democratic process that will occur within two years, that it be smooth and long lasting.
Liberia needs resuscitation in terms of the economic process. We don't have anything. Nothing. E-mail doesn't work, FAX doesn't work, telephone don't work. We operate our offices from cell phones.
We don't have electricity, we don't have water; the sewage is spilling into the streets, so there are a lot of problems. Our financial needs are very urgent, and so we have come here to the United States to plead and to ask for assistance to use your influence through the United Nations to help us, give us some immediate relief to those problems. Schools are not open. Teachers -- the brain drain is out of Liberia. Medical brain drain, teachers, professionals are out of the country.
There's not much we can do to be able to help the system to survive. And if we cannot keep the system up at this time, it looks like we're going to have some problems in the long run. And that's why we have come to see that we have some assistance to keep the process up. It is even, you know, transportation.
If you've been to Monrovia recently, you will find that we don't even have a terminal at the airport. So there are a lot of things that went wrong that we are still trying to cope with, and we need all the assistance we can get. Thank you.
MR. DENIG: Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Minister.
Our two briefers are now prepared to take your questions. I would just ask you, as usual, to please use the microphone, identify yourself and your organization. I guess we'll start with Jim in the middle-back, and then Dale will continue in front here.
QUESTION: Thanks, Paul. Jim Fisher Thompson, Washington File.
First, a question for Mr. Natsios. Sir, you're a -- you have a military background. You're a retired colonel, I think, in the Army reserve and many people up on the Hill and DOD have suggested that in addition to security being focused on, as you mentioned in your opener, that this should also include the establishment of a new Liberian armed forces in order to kind of ensure the protection of the environment that would allow sustainable development to occur after the UN leaves, as it must finally do one day.
Is this a part of the plan, the money that you mentioned, the establishment of a new armed forces? And then I have a follow-up question for the Minister.
Why did it -- what was the hold-up in the disarmament? I mean, you have 10,000 UN officials there and armed forces already, didn't it just -- don't you just ask these people to stack their arms and then you write their names down and give them some money or something? I mean, why was that -- why did that have to be held up? Thank you.
MR. DENIG: Okay, would you both like to come up, maybe, and we'll, Andrew, we'll start with you?
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: The reconstruction of the armed forces is, indeed, part of the plan of a Liberian national army. And so that will be done and the international community will be helping with it.
I would add in, though -- this is just my opinion -- there are some countries like Costa Rica that decided to abolish their militaries entirely. That is not what's being planned, but I always like to put that on the table because I'm not sure in some countries that a military is necessarily useful. But in this particular case, it is part of the plan to construct a national army.
QUESTION: Can I just follow that up real quickly?
Charles Taylor, I believe, when he entered the country last time to cause the problems he did, came in with, I think, 24 men -- 24 fighters -- and the armed forces, then being what they were, were not able to kind of nip that in the bud or fight against him. So if the country chooses not to have a national armed forces, wouldn't it make itself open to another warlord, or say, even to Charles Taylor returning?
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: The reason that Charles Taylor and other rebel movements around the world have currency in any country is because the country is not democratically governed in an honorable way. Why did Charles Taylor get support? Because people were very upset with the central government in Monrovia.
If there hadn't been unrest in the countryside, he wouldn't have been able to recruit anybody. If someone tried in Costa Rica, right now, to recruit forces against the central government, people would say, "This is a functioning democracy. Leave the country."
But that's not what the plan is. I've only raised that because -- I like to put those issues out on the table because sometimes the military can be a problem. But the plan is to construct a national military that is not dominated by one ethnic or religious group, and to be balanced so that it truly is national and not sectarian in any way. And that is in the plan and we will carry it out.
MR. DENIG: Okay. Mr. Minister.
MINISTER NIMELY: It is true that we have 10,000 troops on the ground, but at the time that the incident occurred there were only 4,000 troops on the ground. And the incident occurred -- the disarmament process was a groundbreaking ceremony not designed to handle 10,000 combatants at a time. They probably had, probably less than a hundred UN troops on the ground to disarm only a thousand troops ceremoniously, and then 10,00 showed up. So the system was overwhelmed.
But as I said, immediately after that, they put a temporary halt to the process until they got more UNMIL troops on the ground and the process was re-regulated to ensure that the combatants, the representatives of the combatants, were part of the DDR to command their people, not just leaving the responsibility to the army of troops.
MR. DENIG: Okay, let's go to the first row here on the right. The fellow by the first row here.
QUESTION: My name is Adu-Asare, AfricaNewscast.com.
Mr. Foreign Minister, if you -- do you have a list of requests that you want to present to the United States specifically? And if you do, do you have a request for troops, U.S. soldiers on the ground, on that list? And if not, why not? And how many of the 10,000 on the ground are Americans?
MINISTER NIMELY: Currently, we do not have U.S. troops on the ground in terms of UMMIL to play a role in the UMIL troops. However they were there initially to set the groundwork to ensure that ECOWAS troops came in, and then ECOWAS troop -- then the UNMIL troops came in.
We do have some consultants in terms of the military, U.S. military, on the ground, but not the full-scale UNMIL people. I'm not sure. I guess, you know, the United States could answer that question why not, but they have played their role, and they also are financing the process, making sure that the UNMIL troops on the ground are being given the full support financially and emotionally.
MR. DENIG: Okay, let's go to the front right here.
QUESTION: Yes, Charlie Cobb with Allafrica.com, and I have two loosely related questions to both Mr. Natsios and the Minister.
Would it be fair, firstly, to characterize this first stream of money, this $400-and-some-odd million as kind of, emergency money, money for the short term? What in the big picture for Liberia are we talking about in terms of money?
And how much time -- how much time is going to be involved, given the enormity of the kinds of problems that you describe, Mr. Minister, to really get Liberia, literally, on its feet?
And part of getting Liberia on its feet relates to my second question, which really is a question about stability. What is going to happen to LURD and MODEL? Are they going to continue to exist? Are they going to evolve into political parties, or will they just dissolve? And is there any timeframe for that?
MR. NATSIOS: Well, in terms of the first question, the $487 million is not for humanitarian assistance. That's a separate appeal, which I'll discuss in a minute. That is for the reconstruction of the country, which would include roads, and schools, and hospitals and clinics, and teachers, and making the ministries functional and the central government, which are very important.
There's a second appeal that has been made by the OCHA, the Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance for the UN, for $179 million in emergency assistance. And the United States has made contributions to that already. That part of the $100 million we've already spent is on humanitarian assistance.
We've pledged -- and we haven't pledged, but we've committed in our budget, $35 million for food aid, for example, which is part of this $179 million pledge -- requirement. But that's on the emergency side. The $487 is not for short-term assistance. It is for rebuilding the country. So there -- I didn't mention how much we're putting into the emergency because it's not technically reconstruction, it's humanitarian assistance; it's a separate thing.
In terms of what's going to happen to the two rebel movements and the two national armies, I'd have to leave that to the Minister to speculate on.
MINISTER NIMELY: According to the Accra Peace Accord, MODEL and LURD, as well the former GOL, former Government of Liberia troops, they will remain in force for the entire duration of this transitional government. However, immediately after the disarmament, they will cease to exist as a military force, but they will remain as a political faction, or whatever the case may be, for the duration of this transitional government.
You may note that the combatants of MODEL, LURD and GOL are the young people of Liberia. They are the junior high school students, they are the high school students, and some of them are the college students of Liberia. And that's why we lay more emphasis on this DDR, to also ensure that those who have lost the opportunity of going to high school get these vocational programs. And we are saying to the United Nations, "Do not make your vocational programs three-month programs, six-month programs. Then it will fail." We know that the real vocational program lasts for 12 months and 24 months. So if we can have these hands-on training vocational programs -- mechanic, carpentry, woodwork and those kind of programs, and they have real certificates with real skills, then we will have been able to put some food on the table and, you know, be able to feed their family members, and not rely on government for employment, they can go ahead and do their own programs. So, most definitely, these three organizations will cease to exist as military forces, once disarmament takes place.
MR. DENIG: Okay. Let's go to Morocco, in the third row there, please.
QUESTION: Thank you. Mr. Minister, Azzam Alem, News Agency of Morocco.
First of all, congratulations on the end of the death and destruction that your country, your beautiful country, was experiencing. I want to ask you about Africa. What is Africa doing now for -- in terms of help to the reconstruction of your country? That's one question.
The second question is: How would you describe the security situation now in your country?
MINISTER NIMELY: We have been getting a lot of support from African countries, especially our neighbors. You may note that when Monrovia was burning, the first -- the first country that sent troops was Nigeria, and the Ghanaians came in, and then the Senegalese came in. ECOWAS sent in its first troop. So that was a great help.
They also negotiated the departure of Charles Taylor from Liberia. That also was a great help. We are talking with Nigeria and with Ghana to see if we can get some teachers to come to Liberia for a short term until things are under control. We also are talking with the Ghanaians to see if they can give us some training on how to run the port in terms of customs and collecting taxes -- I mean, customs fees. They have the skills. They have done that before, and they have improved their revenue, and so we would like to learn from them.
We are also talking with people from Burkina Faso to see how they run their water program in the villages. So those are the type of assistance that we are requesting and that we have received a lot good promises and good discussions from these countries.
Our neighbors, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast, we haven't been best of friends in the past. Now that there is a transitional government with a new attitude and new responsibility, we are going around telling them, "Hey, we are now your good neighbor. Let's see how we can talk, and, you know, bring back this whole manner of our union and see how we can open up the borders and our citizens can trade." So there is a lot of good discussion taking place.
MR. DENIG: All right. Could we take the gentleman way in the back, please, and we'll come back front.
QUESTION: Thank you, sir. Foreign Minister, what can you tell us about --
MR. DENIG: Can you introduce yourself, Ben?
QUESTION: Oh. Ben Bangoura, Washington correspondent for Guinea News.
My question is related to the situation with Charles Taylor. What can you give us as an update? We all know he has been indicted, and as far as we know, he's still at large somewhere in Nigeria. What is your government doing to make sure that the indictment and the arrestation (sic) take place?
MINISTER NIMELY: At least you know where he is. I don't know where he is.
(Laughter).
Truly speaking, the concerns of Liberia, we are not thinking about Charles Taylor. We are thinking about 3.some-odd-million people. We're thinking about 700,000 refugees in the neighboring countries that are Liberians. We're thinking about probably 25,000 Liberians here in the United States still going from TPS to TPS to get a job, and they want to come home. We're thinking about probably anywhere between 5 to 10,000 senior citizens, Liberian citizens, who are very old and want to come home, they want to die home -- those are the people we are thinking about.
The United Nation has made a very good decision by taking up the decision regarding Charles Taylor, and we hope that they will deal with it in a way that it will help Liberia to survive in the future.
MR. DENIG: All right. Let's come back here, please, to the first row, and then we'll do this side.
QUESTION: Charlie Cobb, Allafrica.com. Just by way of following up to the Minister, and just by way of following up on my earlier question, really -- I mean, everybody, yourself included, paints, you know, this enormous, this portrait of an enormous reconstruction task: hundreds of thousands of refugees, wells to be built, physical reconstruction of buildings, et cetera.
Realistically, when, in your view, "your," meaning the government view, can enough reconstruction be accomplished to say that Liberia is now on a secure footing? And how much money do you really think that will take? Is a half million dollars -- I mean, is $500 million enough, a billion dollars enough, or what? What's realistic in terms of the reconstruction of Liberia?
MINISTER NIMELY: That's a very good question. It's very difficult to put a number to the price of reconstruction in Liberia.
What we have been looking at is to show that -- to ask the UN and the International Monetary Fund to at least give us this debt relief so that our current revenue, along with the assistance that will be provided, can be used for the reconstruction on an ongoing process.
But even if we can look at the immediate needs -- the water, school, health, electricity -- if we can look at that and begin to open the roads -- because after 13 years there is no road that leads to any village, all of the bridges are down -- and if we can look at that, at least that will help the process in bringing the people back to their villages and reconnecting with the cities and being able to have the small business people bring their fruits and vegetables to market.
I think when we do that we can open up the process for ordinary citizens to begin to build their own huts using papos and muds and little nails, that might begin a process from there. But I think the prices is enormous. The price is enormous.
QUESTION: If I can just -- you know, just one --
MR. DENIG: One little thing.
QUESTION: Quick. I mean, can you do that in a year? And, Mr. Natsios, chime in if you -- with your own analysis.
MINISTER NIMELY: I mean, we cannot do that, and we will not be able to do that in a year, in two years. The transitional government is trying to establish a foundation for this reconstruction to take place. It may not be during our administration that this whole reconstruction process will take place, but at least if we can begin to put some life into the process -- for example, let's see the money come into the hospitals. Let's see the money come into the schools and the children going back to schools and the roads are open, I believe that would be the beginning process and it would give hope to Liberians to say, "Hey, we know that we are on our way forward. We don't need to start fighting anymore." That's what we want to do for this government at this time.
MR. DENIG: All right, let's go to Mr. Adu-Asare here.
QUESTION: Yeah, Adu-Asare.
Mr. Natsios, I am familiar with the Natsios doctrine of introduction of humanitarian assistance into conflict situations as a process towards peace, as you did, as you applied in Sudan. I don't know your evaluation of that process at this point.
Given the experience we had in Sudan, do you think that same principle could be applied to the Liberian situation?
And to the Minister, what response has your administration had from Liberians living abroad, especially in the United States?
MR. NATSIOS: Humanitarian assistance is not -- even though its primary purpose is to keep people alive and reduce suffering -- can also play a useful role in reconciliation, in getting people to work together, in beginning the reconstruction process; or, if it's not applied properly, it can actually exacerbate conflict. And Mary Anderson has done some very good work in her writing and fieldwork, which suggests that we at least do no harm in terms of the conflict itself.
We do know that the Nuba Mountain Accords in Sudan were the basis for the peace negotiations on the political side. That was the first time both sides wrote an agreement and people began walking back and forth across the conflict zone, and where there was a ceasefire -- cessation of hostilities -- and that humanitarian aid moved across conflict lines without any impediments at all. That led to the peace negotiations.
So, but I think Liberia is in a different place than Sudan is. And so humanitarian aid, we don't have to think of, necessarily, strategically because we have a written agreement now among the factions and the different parties as to what needs to be done. It's been agreed to everyone.
What we need to make sure is that everybody who is in need is assisted so that everybody will know that there is a benefit to cooperating with the new provisional government, the transitional government, and with the international community because everybody is being fed properly and medical care is being provided. It is an incentive for people to calm down, go back to their villages, and then begin the reconstruction process.
So, in that sense, we are using humanitarian assistance to support the peace process.
MR. DENIG: Okay. Mr. Minister.
MINISTER NIMELY: I don't know if I got your question clearly. Could you please?
QUESTION: The responses you've had from Liberians who migrated from the country and are probably doing very well outside -- I'm not talking about the refugees, they are probably in bad situations. I'm talking about those of them living -- because I know that a whole lot of them live in the United States and I know they are doing well, too.
MINISTER NIMELY: Right.
QUESTION: So that's what I'm talking about.
MINISTER NIMELY: Well, since I've been here for the past five days, I haven't seen those that are doing well, but I've seen those that are not doing well and are very anxious to go home. So we take it from the face value that those that want to go home are the ones that we would seem to be focusing on.
But the feelings are mixed. The feelings are mixed in the sense that this is not the first time that Liberia has reached this point, although this level is quite different from the past. We have signed so many peace agreements in the past that failed, and so people are saying, "I have to wait to see this one get past this point."
And what we need, and that's why we are here, just to help -- ask the international community to help us get past this point so that we can give courage and hope to people so that they can begin to, you know, actually understand their feelings and say it is time to go home, and they can go home. People are now ready to go home.
Just on Christmas, there were thousands of people in Liberia. The streets of Monrovia were overcrowded. People came to see for the first time what the city will look like. And right now the city is extremely overcrowded and we want to find a way to downsize and let people go back to their villages because this is the only place they have now that they can call home.
So the feelings are mixed, if I may answer that question.
MR. DENIG: All right, let's go back to Ben, please, and then we'll take the lady up front.
QUESTION: Thank you. A question to Foreign Minister.
How do you describe your relationship with Guinea now, and what do you expect from the government there since the relationship in the past, you just mentioned, has been very difficult?
MINISTER NIMELY: We went to Guinea twice. The recent inauguration of Chairman Lansana Conte, we were there. We had gone for -- to spend three hours there, he asked us to spend the night, and we did.
The relationship between Guinea and Liberia was not the relationship between people and people. It was a relationship, a bad relationship, between Taylor and Lansana Conte. Even at the height of this, of the tense crisis, Guinea still maintained 300,000 Liberians in Guinea and they provided security at a time that Guinea had its, this civil -- not a civil fight, but there was the RUF that attacked Guinea and it was believed that there were a lot of Liberians that played a serious role, and Guinea still protected Liberian citizens.
And so the relationship is good. We've been there twice. We've had some serious discussions where it's seemed now that the manner of a reunion is about to have a big groundbreaking for us be able to improve the relationship. Security discussions have been discussed and agreed, and I think it's time for us to move forward.
MR. DENIG: Okay, the lady in the second row, followed by the gentleman in the third row.
QUESTION: Thank you. I'm Nnoema Ukeje-Eloagu of the This Day Newspapers Group, Nigeria and South Africa.
I wonder what would happen if after two years Liberia is not up and running as you would want it to? And what would be the priority areas for the disbursement of the funds?
MR. NATSIOS: I am sure that the donors will reassess the situation in two years, see what's been accomplished, and there will be follow-on discussions about further funding. We don't intend to just stop in two years. Okay, and what was the second question?
QUESTION: The priority areas for disbursement of funds.
MR. NATSIOS: First is demobilization and reintegration of former combatants. The Minister spoke eloquently about vocational training for the younger men and women to be able to support themselves productively in the private market. That's of critical importance.
Getting the school systems functioning and children back in the schools, and we expect that we will have an accelerated learning program that will take the kids that never went to school, but might be 15 years old but who want to go to school, to catch up with where kids who went to school and are at that age are. We've done this successfully in Iraq and Afghanistan, where a large percentage of the children simply lost any schooling at all over a period of years.
The health indicators are not particularly good for Liberia, and so we'll have to spend money in the health sector.
There will have to be some work done in training a national cadre of reporters for a private media, for newspapers, radio stations to function, which is an important part of a democracy.
Having the ministries functional so that they can actually administer programs. Capacitating the ministries to run the country is very important. And then preparations for the election are also part of the plan.
And finally, governance that will allow a framework for a unique economic system that will attract private capital to rebuild the economy.
MR. DENIG: Okay, last question, third row here. Or, we'll take one more.
QUESTION: Thank you. I'm Baro Sero from Voice of America TV to Africa.
My question is, in most African countries, transitional governments, after the term of the transitional governments, the transitional government does not want to organize -- most of the time transitional government does not want to organize fair and transparent election to enable a free elected government to take over.
What measure do you think you're going to take to prevent such a situation? Because in Liberia there's going to be a transitional government, and then, after that the transitional government might postpone elections. And that's what happens in African countries -- postpone election or even amend the constitution to enable the transitional government to stay in power permanently.
What measure do you think you're going to take to prevent such a situation? Thank you.
MINISTER NIMELY: As I said previously, the transitional government is a government that consists of all the warring parties. And I think the international community stressed a point when it says that all of the warring parties will be denied a chairmanship and we will look at someone else outside of the warring parties to be the chairman.
And I think this is the case with this government. All of us are now in government. The Accra Peace Accord did actually indicate that those that are currently in government, are set in positions, especially the chairman and the speaker, the vice chairman -- those people cannot run to be president.
The other thing is that within this government they cannot use this government, this transitional government, to posture politically for the next election.
So there is a transparency. We have to keep that transparency effective. We are part of the government and we are not part of the political institution or the chairman. We are different, and every different part has coming to play, and we are watching. So when that time comes, we will make sure to hit the ball where it's supposed to go.
MR. DENIG: Last question will go to South Africa.
QUESTION: My name is Deon Lamprecht from Media24 in South Africa.
Mr. Foreign Minister, you've mentioned the ECOWAS troops on the ground and neighboring countries have offered to help. Has the African Union, as an organization, stepped forward to offer financial aid or aid to the strengthening of governing institutions or democratic institutions in your country?
MINISTER NIMELY: That has not yet taken place. I think there are a lot of discussions on the way for that. You may note that the African Union is a new organization trying to get its office together. But ECOWAS has filled that role, although some of the African countries that are not part of ECOWAS have contributed troops. Ethiopia did. I believe it's just Ethiopia out, because Senegal is -- Senegal also sent troops. Besides, we also have other countries outside of Africa that commit a lot of troops.
But a discussion is on the way for that.
MR. DENIG: Mr. -- Minister Nimely, Mr. Natsios, thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, too. Appreciate it.
