TRANSLATE
Due to the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has threatened
the entire region, United Nations or UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
has told the Security Council that he wants to delay the gradual
drawdown of the U.N. Mission in Liberia established in 2003 to help
Liberia through a vexing transition from civil war to democracy.According to the UN Radio in Liberia UNMIL Radio, U.N. efforts to ship equipment, personnel and humanitarian and medical supplies into the region have been hampered by flight restrictions imposed by neighboring governments and large international carriers, including British Airways and Air France, which have suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone, the hardest-hit countries.
According to the United Nations, Ebola has rapidly transformed from a major public health emergency to a threat to international peace and security- severely challenging U.N. efforts to support stability in the West African heart of the epidemic.
UNMIL Radio said the U.N. officials told Foreign Policy that several governments with police and troops serving in the U.N. mission were worried about the risk of infection to their nationals, informing U.N. Peacekeeping planners that they were weighing whether to pull out.
The radio also reported that the Philippine Government was withdrawing its peacekeeping forces from both Liberia and the Golan Heights, where anti-Syrian militants abducted 43 peacekeepers.
Documents released to this paper quoted a senior U.N.-based diplomat, who has been discussing the crisis with the U.N.'s top leadership, as saying "A lot of regional countries, in our view unwisely, have interrupted communications and flights, and were not allowing planes to land.".
"You can't get medical staff into the region to tackle the disease."
The document also revealed that the diplomat joined other top U.N. officials in warning that the humanitarian and peacekeeping operations could be disrupted. "There are deep concerns about the impact on the actual peacekeeping missions," said the diplomat.
"The troop-contributing countries are getting nervous;
Other countries participating in the Liberia mission also have signaled their intention to pull out of Liberia because of Ebola,” said a senior U.N. official, noting that the organization was trying to persuade them to stay.
"We have been talking to them; some are sending experts to assess the risks by themselves before taking a final decision," the official said.
According to the document, Ban wrote the Security Council that Liberia, which lost more than 150,000 lives to its civil war from 1989 to 1997 -- has struggled with the U.N.'s help to rebuild itself and establish democratic institutions.
The United Nations, which once had more than 15,000 troops deployed in the country, had hoped to turn over the task of securing the country to the Liberian security forces by the middle of 2016. But those plans are now on hold he wrote.
As Liberia emerged as the epicenter of the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, Ban made it clear that he was reconsidering plans to downsize the mission here.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, the U.N. chief asked to put off the decision for at least three months, expressing concern that the "scale and scope of the epidemic exceeded the capacity of national institutions."
"Ebola is having a devastating impact on Liberia, with the Ministry of Health recording, as of 24 August 2014, a cumulative total of 1,378 cases, resulting in 743 deaths," Ban wrote.
"While the Ebola outbreak began primarily as a medical emergency, it has become more complex, with political, security and humanitarian implications that are significant and dynamic." While Ban highlighted the seriousness of the epidemic, he also sought to assure governments that fears of infection were overblown.
"All United Nations personnel in Liberia have been educated about the appropriate preventive measures that would minimize the risk of contracting Ebola, which is not airborne and requires direct contact with the bodily fluids of a symptomatic infected person or the deceased," he wrote.
"I am therefore confident that United Nations personnel may continue their important work in Liberia." The President of Liberia has imposed extraordinary measures, deploying Liberian soldiers and police to enforce quarantines in areas of the country affected by Ebola. On Aug. 20, she declared a nationwide curfew as an additional effort to contain the virus, leading to clashes with community groups.
In the short term, Ban said that he would temporarily send home a "small number" of U.N. election officials, saying it is unlikely that Senate elections will take place in October. But he said he would increase the number of medical personnel and other U.N. staff to address the Ebola crisis and deliver humanitarian assistance.
