VOA News
15 Jul 2003, 20:43 UTC
U.S. defense sources say a U.S. military team sent to Liberia to assess the condition for a possible American troops presence there, is likely to remain in the west African country indefinitely.
The sources, not identified, tell VOA Tuesday that if the 30-member team was to leave Liberia now, it may prompt Liberian President Charles Taylor to stay on despite his promise to step down.
President Bush has said it may be necessary to send U.S. troops to the West African nation to join regional forces for a peacekeeping operation. This comes as the main rebel group in the Liberia is calling for U.S. troops to have, what it calls, an "overwhelming" presence in the war-torn country.
A spokesman for Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, Kabineh Ja'neh, said Tuesday that American troops are needed for psychological comfort and would signal an end to the country's 14-year-long civil war. But President Bush is also demanding that the Liberian president step down before U.S. help arrives.
Mr. Taylor has accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria and has said he will step down - but only when after international peacekeepers are deployed in the country. Meanwhile, the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS, has named a Nigerian military officer to lead a regional force it is sending to Liberia. ECOWAS said Brigadier-General Festus Okonkwo will command soldiers monitoring cease-fire lines in and around the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan says U.N. forces eventually will take over peacekeeping duties and all the other troops would go home. He made the remarks on Monday following a meeting with President Bush at the White House.
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