Global Policy Forum

By Warren Hoge

An international conference here to raise funds to rebuild war-ravaged Liberia ended Friday, with donations of $520 million exceeding organizers' ambitions. The two-day conference, sponsored by the United Nations, the United States and the World Bank, had set a goal of at least $488 million, which organizers estimated was needed to meet urgent reconstruction needs over the next two years in a country that emerged last summer from years of relentless war.

Andrew S. Natsios, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, said, "We hear a lot these days about donor fatigue, but there was no evidence of donor fatigue here today." Gyude Bryant, chairman of Liberia's transitional government, said that with the assistance his administration would pursue its goals of disarming and reintegrating combatants, reforming the security services, maintaining public sector accountability, aiding refugees and preparing for elections in October 2005. "Liberia will rise again," he said, prompting a standing ovation from the delegates, who represented 96 countries and 45 organizations.

In an introductory speech, Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the delegates to "seize this opportunity to end a long-running nightmare that has disgraced humankind." Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, addressing the conference after a weather-delayed arrival from Washington, said, "Liberia's successful reconstruction would send a powerful message to other long troubled parts of Africa that the international community will stand behind those who seize the opportunity for peace and who set the course for democracy and sustainable development." He spoke of the critical need to find a place in society for the thousands of children who were armed and pressed into combat as adolescents.

United Nations envoys reported to the conference that almost all of Liberia's 3.3 million residents have been profoundly affected, with half of them displaced from their homes. The unusual step that the United Nations took of focusing such fund- raising energy on Liberia alone reflected international concern that continued instability there could endanger the entire volatile region. Under its exiled leader, Charles G. Taylor, Liberia was a catalyst for civil wars and bloodshed throughout West Africa, an area with particularly porous borders. The United States had earmarked $200 million for Liberia on top of $90 million already spent there, Mr. Powell told the delegates. He also pledged $245 million toward a peacekeeping force.

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