Global Policy Forum

By Tim Weiner

Charles G. Taylor, who was forced out as president of Liberia on Aug. 11 and flew to exile in Nigeria, took with him $3 million donated for disarming and demobilizing thousands of armed combatants, a senior United Nations official said today. The sum is roughly equal to six months of current government revenues in Liberia, by any measure one of the poorest nations on earth.

The senior United Nations official here, Jacques P. Klein, the special representative of Secretary General Kofi Annan, described the theft and said the donor was an Asian nation. Other government officials said it was Taiwan. Taiwan is the only Asian country with both an embassy in Monrovia and close ties to the former Taylor administration. Taiwanese officials could not be reached for comment here, nor could Mr. Taylor.

Mr. Klein sent this message to a radio audience today: "I would say to the belligerents out there who may be listening to us, `It's your money, guys.' " The administration of Mr. Taylor was known for suave conduct in public and brutal behavior in private. Now the extent of his stealing is becoming clear. In an interview, Mr. Klein said senior members of the Taylor administration were now seeking bribes from European Union officials who are trying to import desperately needed fuel to run electric generators. Monrovia has had no functioning power system for almost a decade, the consequence of 14 years of fighting.

Mr. Klein said he would go to New York on Saturday and ask the United Nations Security Council for a mandate to send 15,000 peacekeepers to Liberia for at least a year. A Council vote is expected the week of Sept. 15. There is currently a force of 3,000 West African peacekeepers, mainly Nigerians, in Liberia. The first of the new peacekeepers could be here in October, with the goal of isolating and disarming the warring factions. The factions are not making war on each other now, but they are terrorizing civilians, driving them from their villages.

Mr. Klein and American officials here said any future American military role in Liberia might be confined to a small group of trainers, either soldiers or government contractors, sent to try to shape up the remnants of the Liberian Army. A small contingent of Marines stationed here since Aug. 15 is to leave on Oct. 1, two weeks before a new transitional government takes power. "The United States, even if it cannot make the commitment itself, should encourage other countries to stay for the long term, to help us out," said Mr. Klein, a retired United States Air Force major general.

The question of money is crucial in Monrovia. No one knows who will put up the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to rebuild the nation. The capital has been all but destroyed, as have hundreds of Liberian villages, by the civil war that Mr. Taylor started in 1989 as he fought his way to power and the presidency in 1997. Rebel forces began to attack Mr. Taylor's government in 1999; this summer they laid siege to Monrovia for 10 weeks. "We need money desperately," said Mr. Klein, who hopes to convene international donors in Paris this fall.

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