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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

LIBERIA: About 1000 demonstrate against 'US policy'

MONROVIA, 10 January 2003 (IRIN) - A Liberian government-backed demonstration against what it called 'United States government's policy towards Liberia' took place on Friday in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, by nearly 1000 loyalists from the war-ravaged Bomi county some 35 km west of the capital.

The march, marked by a low turned-out, comprised mainly women and the elderly supporters of the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) and some internally displaced persons from the various IDP centers around Monrovia.

They gathered at the Antoinette Tubman stadium in down town Monrovia, displayed banners which read "America, We are Your Children. Stop the Terrorist War Against US" as they marched along with freedom songs played by the Armed Forces of Liberia's marching band.

In a statement read by Bomi County superintendent Alfred Boima Anderson Jr. and was expected to be presented to both the Liberian and US governments, the Bomi citizens called for the intervention of the US in the ongoing conflict between LURD and Government in the northwestern part of the country.

"America must help us now as the British did in neigbouring Sierra Leone and what the French are presently doing now in La Cote d'Ivoire" the statement read in part.

Organizers of the march in a statement broadcast on the state-owned Liberia Broadcasting System on Thursday, said there would be more of such demonstrations if the US government does not changed its policy towards Liberia.

The US embassy in Monrovia in a release issued on 2 January denied that it supported violence against the government and suspended all visa services at the embassy as "a precautionary security measure" in the wake of the planned demonstration.

The demonstration had been called by Liberian leader Charles Taylor in late December during a meeting of his ruling NPP members at the presidential palace in Monrovia.

He ordered his party supporters to stage a nation-wide demonstration against what he termed "the US government support for the rebels Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD)".

Themes: (IRIN) Governance

[ENDS]

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