LIBERIA: UNCHR chief Antonio Guterres marks Worls Refugee Day by welcoming back civilians who fled Liberia's civil war

Record ID: 274512

  • Title: LIBERIA: UNCHR chief Antonio Guterres marks Worls Refugee Day by welcoming back civilians who fled Liberia's civil war
  • Date: 21st June 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER ANTONIO GUTERRES SAYING: "I think the most beautiful thing we can do in the UNHCR is to help people go back home when they really want to like these families here in this truck."
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Liberia
  • Country: Liberia
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA21T1N83X9E7P8FK9Y355Z6I44
  • Story Text: UNCHR chief Antonio Guterres marked World Refugee Day by welcoming back on Tuesday (June 20) civilians who fled Liberia's civil war and urging the world to help millions across the planet heading home to a bleak future.
    The total number of refugees in the world -- 8.4 million people -- is at its lowest in more than a quarter of a century, according to United Nations (U.N.) figures.
    More than six million have returned home over the last four years.
    Guterres climbed into a canvas-covered truck and sat with the returnees on their journey to a transit centre in Sinje, a settlement of makeshift buildings with corrugated iron roofs.
    "I think the most beautiful thing we can do in the UNHCR is to help people go back home when they really want to like these families here in this truck,"Guterres said.
    But in Liberia, as in other post-conflict states, many refugees return to towns that have been torn to pieces, where schools and hospitals barely function, and where family members may be missing.
    Guterres told reporters U.N. experience showed that during the five years after a conflict is solved, half of the countries go back into conflict again, because foundations were not laid for a stable situation and for sound economic development.
    Liberians returning home said they were happy to be back, but despaired over picking up the pieces of their lives.
    Liberia, once home to one of the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world, is still without running water or electricity two years after the war ended and job prospects for legions of unemployed youths are dim.
    The returnees are among 14,000 people to have come back to Liberia through Bo Waterside since October 2004, aided by UNCHR.
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