In August 2003, a political accord was signed that formally ended over three and one-half yearsof armed civil conflict in Liberia, a small West African country of about 3.3 million people. Sincethat time, the country has made steady progress toward consolidating peace, initiating post-warresettlement and socio-economic reconstruction, and establishing functional interim stateinstitutions. Despite such progress, there are indications that these and other related goals -- suchas the conduct of credible and transparent democratic elections, the creation of a durably transparentand effective governance regime, and a transition from reconstruction to long-term economic growth-- face diverse and substantial obstacles. Donor Assistance. Liberia's progress has been aided, in part, by international donors, including the United States, which held a pledging conferencefor Liberia in New York on February 5-6, 2004. At the conference, donors pledged over $522million in relief and reconstruction assistance for Liberia; $200 million of this amount was pledgedby the United States. (1) The donor conference, attendedby representatives of 96 countries and 45public and private organizations, reviewed the plans of the National Transitional Government ofLiberia (NTGL) for a post-conflict transition, as well as progress toward implementation of a peaceaccord signed in August 2003. It also received an update on the activities and views of the UnitedNations (U.N.) Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and considered a program of assistance organizedaround a "Results-Focused Transition Framework" centering on reconstruction and rehabilitationactivities in 2004 and 2005. The framework's main elements, which underpin the efforts of themultiple functional U.N. agencies and many of the non-governmental organizations that are activein Liberia, include the following: Security maintenance, demobilization and reintegration, development of democratic governance and the rule of law, police training and reform, andelections; Protection of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), advocacy forhuman and gender-based rights, combating HIV/AIDS; Provision of basic services, including water, sanitation, health care, andeducation, and related services; Economic development policy strategy and restoration of productive capacityand livelihoods; and Reconstruction of infrastructure, e.g., electricity, transport,telecommunications, and housing. U.S. Supplemental Appropriation. The donor conference followed President Bush's November 6, 2003, signing into law of the EmergencySupplemental Appropriations Act for Defense and for the Reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan,2004 , P.L. 108-106 . It provided $245 million for assessed costs of United Nations (U.N.)peacekeeping operations in Liberia, and up to $205.5 million for peace, humanitarian disaster, andfamine assistance for Liberia. (2) U.N. Mission and Transitional Government. The authorization of sharply increased U.S. assistance to Liberia followed the deployment on October1, 2003 of UNMIL, authorized by the U.N. Security Council on September 19, 2003, and theestablishment of the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL). The NTGL, inauguratedon October 14, 2003, was formed in accordance with a peace agreement signed in Accra, Ghana,which formally ended the Liberian conflict. The NTGL is led by Gyude ( Joo-deh ) Bryant, abusinessman and Episcopal church layman of ethnic Grebo descent, who leads the Liberian ActionParty. As head of state, Bryant occupies the office of chairman, a post designated in the August 2003Comprehensive Peace Agreement (hereafter labeled the CPA), as the top executive NTGL positionin order to emphasize the transitory nature of the NTGL and to forebear the naming of a presidentprior to elections. The NTGL vice-chairman is Wesley Johnson, a university economics lecturerwho heads the Liberian United Peoples' Party. Peace Accord. The signing of the CPA on August 18, 2003 followed two and a half months of negotiations mediated by the Economic Community ofWest African States (ECOWAS) and the International Contact Group on Liberia (ICGL). (3) Itssignatories include the armed parties in Liberia's conflict and Liberia's leading political parties andcivil society groups. The armed parties included the forces of Liberia's former president, CharlesTaylor, and two armed anti-Taylor rebel groups, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy(LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). The accord provides for disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) programs and a peace-building process in Liberia. It mandates that the NTGL implement a largelyfailed June 17, 2003 cease-fire agreement; (4) monitorand coordinate the DDRR process, withinternational assistance, as well as a range of other political and reconstruction programs; and assistin the preparation and conduct of internationally supervised elections in October 2005. (5) Other keyprovisions of the accord include The stipulated establishment of various political processes, legal authorities, mandates, and bodies, including an Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) and a NationalCommission for Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (NCDDRR) toimplement the peace accord, and a timetable for this purpose; Military and police restructuring; Release of political prisoners and prisoners of war; The apportionment of key government leadership positions among accordsignatories; "Consideration" of "a recommendation for general amnesty to all persons andparties engaged or involved in military activities during the Liberian civil conflict"; Naming of a new supreme court; and The creation of a Contracts and Monopolies Commission (CMC), aGovernance Reform Commission (GRC), an Independent National Commission on Human Rights(INCHR), a National Electoral Commission (NEC), a National Transitional Legislative Assembly(NTLA), and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Key Turning Points. The signing of the peace accord was preceded by two key events: the departure from Liberia on August 11, 2003 of CharlesTaylor, who resigned from the presidency and went into exile in Nigeria after accepting an offer ofpolitical asylum from its government; and the deployment by ECOWAS of a military interventionforce known as the ECOWAS Mission in Liberia (ECOMIL). The departure of Taylor, elected Liberia's president in 1997 after its first civil war (1989-1997), followed intense international pressure on him to leave Liberia, as he had publicly pledged to do onJune 4, 2003. After Taylor's departure, the vice president, Moses Blah, assumed the presidency ashead of a caretaker government, pending the swearing in of the NTGL. Several developments appearto have motivated Taylor's decision to leave. These include the possibility that if he did not acceptNigeria's asylum offer, he would have faced immediate extradition to Sierra Leone to answerinternational war crimes charges (see below); continuing military gains by LURD and MODEL; andLURD's refusal to engage in serious conflict resolution efforts while Taylor remained in office. Hisdeparture appears to have been a key factor motivating LURD and MODEL to agree to the CPA. The ECOWAS intervention sought to end heavy fighting and alleviate a worsening humanitarian crisis in the wake of the failed June 17 cease-fire. ECOMIL was mandated withmonitoring and securing the cease-fire, enabling the delivery of relief aid, and preparing the way forUNMIL. Lead elements of ECOMIL, predominantly comprised of a Nigerian battalion that had beenserving with the U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), began deploying to Liberia on August4, 2003. An additional Nigerian battalion, one of several West African forces trained underOperation Focus Relief, (6) and troops from Mali,Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Togo, Ghana, andBenin, continued to arrive throughout August and into September 2003. ECOMIL, which reacheda full force strength of over 3,560 members by mid-September, deployed with the aid of extensiveU.S. and U.N. assistance. The United States provided logistical and transport services,communications equipment, and other supplies worth $26 million in funds drawn from U.S.peacekeeping operations accounts. This assistance was delivered primarily by PAE GovernmentServices, Inc., a military logistics services firm that had previously supported ECOWAS forces inLiberia and Sierra Leone, in liaison with elements of the U.S. military Joint Task Force Liberia (seebelow). Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). Liberia's recent conflict, the second in a decade, (7) began when LURDlaunched a series of cross-border raids into Liberia's northwestern Lofa County in mid-year 2000,reportedly from nearby bases in southern Guinea. These actions resembled several similar, butabortive, attacks launched in 1999, likely by fighters who later formed LURD, which began tocoalesce in mid-1999. It was initially primarily comprised of Liberians living in Sierra Leone andGuinea as exiles and refugees. (8) LURD's nominalleader, Sekou Damate Conneh, is a formerLiberian tax collector of Mandingo heritage who fled to Guinea in 1990. He later worked as an autotrader and businessman, and was imprisoned after returning to Liberia in 1997; he later again fledto Guinea.