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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: Government recaptures key port on eve of ceasefire
MONROVIA, 17 June 2003 (IRIN) - Jubilant Liberians drove round the capital Monrovia in cars and buses waving white flags on Tuesday to celebrate the signing of a ceasefire agreement with two rebel movements.
The government meanwhile announced that it had recaptured the port of Greenville in a last minute offensive to regain lost territory before the ceasefire agreement was signed at peace talks in Ghana on Tuesday afternoon.
Kiss FM, the private radio station of President Charles Taylor, said government forces had retaken Greenville on Monday. The timber export port, 250 km southeast of Monrovia, fell to rebels of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) in mid-May.
Presidential spokesman Vaani Paaswe meanwhile told IRIN that government forces had pushed back fighters of another rebel movement, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), as far as Kley Junction, 35 km from Monrovia.
"Government troops are in full control of Kley and I have just returned from there," Paasewe said. LURD launched a fierce attack on Monrovia shortly after the peace talks began in Ghana on June 4 and succeeded at one point in advancing to within five km of the city centre. However, its fighters withdrew from the capital's western suburbs five days later.
The LURD attack triggered an influx of 100,000 displaced people who had been living in camps on the edge of Monrovia, into the city centre to seek safety. It also led to an exodus of foreign residents from the capital. France, Ghana and Nigeria have mounted separate operations to evacuate foreigners on warships and special flights from the Monrovia airport. Diplomats said a US warship was standing by off the coast to take out more foreigners if necessary.
News of the ceasefire was greated with joy in Monrovia by civilians and soldiers alike. One military pick-up truck drove round the city centre with cheering soldiers who had tied white cloths to the barrels of their guns.
Earlier in the day about 100 women peace activists dressed in white staged a demonstration in front of the US embassy urging Washington to intervene and stop the civil war which has plagued Liberia on and off for the past 14 years. The country was founded by freed US slaves in 1947 and has always enjoyed a special relationship with America.
The demonstrators, who belonged to a group called Women in Action for Peace Building carried one banner which read: "America help to take us from the fire. We need US intervention now."
Taylor launched a guerrilla war to seize power in Liberia in 1989 and was elected president in 1997 following a West African military intervention to try and return the country to stable government. But LURD launched a rebellion against his rule in northern Liberia in 1999 and MODEL appeared on the scene in the southeast of the country three months ago.
Diplomats and relief workers reckon that the two rebel movements now control up to 80 percent of the country. Liberian military sources said on Monday that although the government had recaptured Greensville, MODEL still held the northern part of Sinoe county in which it is situated.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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