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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: Taylor to only attend opening of peace talks
MONROVIA, 28 May 2003 (IRIN) - A week to proposed talks between the Liberian government and rebels in Ghana, President Charles Taylor has said he will only attend the formal ceremony and named a junior minister as the government's chief negotiator.
Diplomats in Monrovia told IRIN on Wednesday, that Taylor's new position sent a mixed signal after his commitment to fully participate in the talks which are brokered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Former Nigerian president, Gen. Abudsalami Abubakar will moderate the meeting due to start on 4 June in Akosombo, 100 km north of Ghana's capital, Accra.
However Taylor said he would accept the outcome of the talks. "I will not be an obstacle to peace," Taylor told religious and civil society leaders in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. "I would accept the result of the conference, once it meets the aspirations of the Liberian people."
Taylor named the youthful minister of state for foreign affairs, Lewis Browne as the government's chief negotiator. "The appointment of a junior minister demonstrates the kind of seriousness he attaches to the talks," a diplomat said.
Fighting in the southeast continued with the govermment launching a counter-offensive against the rebel Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), who last week seized the key timber port city of Harper, 400 southeast of the capital Monrovia. Army chief of staff, Gen. Kpenkpah Konah told reporters on Tuesday, that troops engaged MODEL from Pleebo town, 15 km north of Harper. The army, he added, was being supported by civilians.
There was no independent confirmation of the reported counter-offensive. But aid workers in Monrovia told IRIN on Wednesday that all areas around Harper, including the newly created River Gee County, were under the firm control of MODEL forces.
Defense sources also said that rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) group, had attacked Gbaota town, near the Guinean border, about 40 km north of the Taylor's strategic stronghold of Gbarnga. The attack, the sources said, threatened Gbarnga, which lies 150 km north of Monrovia. The town was taken by LURD in early March, but later regained by government forces.
Meanwhile Liberia's defense minister, Daniel Chea, has told reporters that the government was investigating the reported killing of some family members of the former Sierra Leonean rebel commander, Sam Bokarie. Bokarie, a former commander of Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front which is accused of committing numerous atrocities, was involved with rebel groups in western Cote d'Ivoire when he was reported killed inside Liberia in early May.
The Special War Crime Court in Sierra Leone said last week, Bokarie's wife and children had been killed in Liberia following his killing by governments fighters. The court, which indicted Bokarie before he was reported killed on war crimes, has demanded that Liberia turn over his body for forensic identification. But Liberia says it is first conducting its own investigations.
Chea said Bockarie had been contracted by "some regional countries to destabilise Liberia" because they believed Liberia was playing a role in the crisis in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire. He did not name the countries but said documents and weapons discovered where Bokarie was killed had provided details.
In a related development, the government stopped a peace march in Monrovia that was scheduled for Wednesday. It had been organized by Liberian civil society organizations and some West African nationals residing in Liberia. The organizer, the Civil Society Movement of Liberia and the ECOWAS Citizens Union, said it was meant to attract international and sub-regional attention to the plight of Liberia.
The government had earlier granted permission for the march. But justice minister, Koboi Johnson said in a statement on Wednesday evening it was put off due to "very recent intelligence information available."
Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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