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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: Liberian talks open without one rebel group
ACCRA, 4 June 2003 (IRIN) - One of Liberia's two main rebel groups, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), failed on Wednesday to turn up in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, for the opening of talks aimed at brokering peace between the Liberian government and the rebel groups.
MODEL, officials told IRIN, said that it was not given enough time to prepare for the talks. Ghanaian President John Kufuor, also chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), was expected to contact MODEL and convince them to send a team to the two-week talks, the officials added.
An announcement by the UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone that it had indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor on charges of war crimes, created some uncertainty before the opening. But the session later went ahead, attended by over 1,000 Liberians, including the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and prominent Liberian politicians.
Taylor, who led a 40-man delegation said: "A small group of Liberians have led our country into some sort of subterfuge of all kinds affecting the entire region. Some people believe that Taylor is the problem. I will remove myself from whatever process that continues to perpetuate conflict in Liberia. If it would bring peace, I will remove myself as president."
He added: "Let the process be put in place that will ensure a smooth transition from war to peace. My mandate as president ends in January. I am doing this because I am tired of powerful and influential people who are bringing so much sufferings into Liberia."
Before leaving the Liberian capital, Monrovia on Tuesday, Taylor had said he could only step down if Liberia's "old generation of politicians abandon their quest for power". He cited Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former interim president Amos Sawyer, presidential aspirants Tokpah Nah Tipoteh and Boima Fahnbulleh.
"Let all of us step aside, leave this presidency and allow the younger generation of Liberians to direct the affairs of our country," Taylor told reporters. He directed the defense minister, Daniel Chea, to release all political prisoners.
On Wednesday, some of the 50,000 Liberian refugees living in Ghana had demonstrated outside the M-Plaza hotel where Taylor's delegation stayed. They called for peace, saying they wanted to go home.
Presidents Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa urged the parties to agree on a peace plan for Liberia. They joined Sierra Leonian President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, "as part of a group of seven African Leaders expected to lend support to Kufuor's attempts to bring peace to Liberia," Kwabena Agyapong, Press Secretary to the Ghanaian President told IRIN.
Kufuor said: "Civil war in [Liberia] wants to engulf the whole subregion. The killing-fields of Liberia have become the deathbeds of West African soldiers who have served there as ECOMOG troops and this war is currently spilling over to nearly all the neighboring states. Liberia today has lost its focus...it can not even render the most basic facilities to its people."
Mbeki said: "The last time in was in Ghana, we were here to discuss the Ivory Coast Situation and I am pleased to say that we did achieve great advances in Cote d'Ivoire. That country has demonstrated that we can solve what is happening in Liberia. Liberians have suffered so much and for too long...We should not disappoint our whole continent, which urgently wants to see Liberia go back to the path of peace."
Obasanjo told the session: "Today is a day of opportunity for Liberia and her people and also for Africa. If we allow this opportunity to slip away, it will never come back again. Liberians have been bled enough and West Africa has made enough sacrifices for Liberia."
After the opening ceremony the talks were expected to move out of Accra. The venues of the talks in Akosombo and Akuse, 100 km and 80 km north of Accra respectively, were however reversed from what had been announced on Tuesday. ECOWAS and the UN-backed contact group on Liberia brokered the talks.
Kwabena Agyepong told IRIN that representatives of Taylor and the rebel groups would discuss ceasefire agreements at Akuse while the other 17 political parties would converge at Akosombo to attempt to reach a consensus on the conduct of free and fair elections in their country. Former Nigerian president General Abdusalami Abubakar is facilitating.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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