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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: Rebels vow to fight until peacekeepers arrive
MONROVIA, 29 July 2003 (IRIN) - Both rebel movements in Liberia advanced further into the rapidly shrinking fiefdom of President Charles Taylor on Tuesday and vowed to continue their offensive until foreign peacekeepers arrived in the country.
However, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United States have both said they are unwilling to deploy troops on the ground until a ceasefire has been arranged.
The fighting therefore seemed set to continue, although some LURD officials in Accra, Ghana, announced yet another ceasefire.
The Movement For Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) said it captured the port city of Buchanan, 100 km southeast of the capital Monrovia on Monday and declared that its next target was Robertsfield international airport, which lies half way between Buchanan and Monrovia.
A second rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), meanwhile launched a fresh mortar barrage on central Monrovia on Tuesday from its stronghold on Bushrod Island, where the city's deep water port is situated.
Defence ministry sources said LURD also launched an assault on the town of Gbarnga, 120 km northwest of Monrovia. They said Gbarnga was likely to fall to rebel forces later in the day, even though reinforcements had been sent to bolster its beleaguered garrison.
Fighting was also reported between LURD and government forces at Totota, half way along the road from Gbarnga to Monrovia.
Tiah Slanger, leader of the MODEL delegation to the Liberian peace talks in Accra, told IRIN in Ghana: "We now have full control over the Buchanan port. If capturing Robertsfield airport means guaranteeing the protection and security of Liberians living in those areas, then we will go after it."
Slanger said MODEL might then advance on Monrovia itself. "Our main objective is to put pressure on Taylor to leave before the peacekeepers arrive. If this means continuing the push towards Monrovia, so be it," he said.
"Anytime Taylor wrecks havoc in our area, we have been blamed. This time we will pursue him to wherever he came from. Once the peacekeepers arrive in Liberia and their deployment is firmly on the ground, we will order our troops to stop all hostilities," Slanger added.
Sekou Damate Conneh, the chairman of LURD, also made clear that his men would battle on until the vanguard of a West African peacekeeping force landed to restore order.
"We are waiting for ECOMOG's arrival so that we could withdraw from areas under our control and hand them over to the peackeeping troops," he told Radio France International on Monday.
"We do not want Taylor's men to take advantage of our withdrawal for them to recapture areas currently under our control," he added. "In the meantime we will continue to defend our positions in the event of attacks....if ECOMOG wants to come now, then let Charles Taylor leave."
Taylor, a former warlord who was elected president in 1997, has pledged to step down and take up an offer of asylum in Nigeria as soon as the first peacekeepers arrive, but he has ruled out leaving beforehand.
Eyewitnesses said LURD launched a fresh mortar attack on Monrovia city centre on Tuesday afternoon which killed seven civilians and sparked a fresh movement of displaced people towards the Mamba Point diplomatic quarter, where the heavily fortified US embassy is situated.
Sporadic gunfire could also be heard, as government fighters attempted to dislodge LURD forces from two key bridges linking Bushrod Island to the city centre and Monrovia's northeastern suburbs.
Nigeria, which has put two army battalions on stand by to lead an international peacekeeping force into Liberia, said on Tuesday it would not move in until western donors agreed to fully finance their deployment.
President Olusegun Obasanjo told the BBC during a visit to London that Nigeria had spent US $12 billion on peacekeeping missions to Liberia and Sierra Leone over the past 12 years. This time, he added, the international community would have to help shoulder the burden. The United States has so far offered a contribution of US $10 million, but it is likely to cost several hundred million dollars to deploy a full fledged peacekeeping force to Liberia for a year or more.
The Liberian government signed a ceasefire agreement with LURD and MODEL at peace talks in Ghana last month, but this now lies in tatters. Following its capture of Buchanan, MODEL now controls all of eastern Liberia. LURD holds most of the north and east of the country.
Taylor's beleaguered forces are left with just half of Monrovia and a few towns to the north and east of the capital.
One of these is Harbel, the headquarters of the Firestone rubber plantation near Robertsfield international airport. In recent days thousands of displaced people from Monrovia and Buchanan have been trekking there to escape the fighting. Relief workers said more than 50,000 were estimated to have taken refuge there.
Although MODEL claimed to be in full control of the Buchanan, the government said its forces were still on the edge of the city, preparing to counter-attack.
Defence Minister Daniel Chea told Agence France Presse on Tuesday: "We are controlling the west part of the town, the crossroads leading to Monrovia...they are controlling the centre of the town."
Over the weekend, the MODEL delegation to the Accra Peace Talks flew into Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia to hold consultations with their leaders on the current turn of events in the Liberian conflict.
Diplomats say the rebel movement, which appeared on the scene four months ago, is heavily backed by the Ivorian government.
LURD meanwhile is seen as being sponsored by Guinea. AFP said US deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Pamela Bridgewater, flew into the Guinean capital Conakry at the weekend to put pressure on LURD to stop its offensive.
AFP said that after a meeting with Guinean Foreign Minister Francois Fall and LURD leader Sekou Conneh, Bridgewater voiced Washington's "indignation" at what she called Guinea's alleged "active support" for the LURD.
Spent cartridges from Guinean army weapons, she said, were found at the US embassy in Monrovia after rebels landed shells on it last week.
UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, expressed outrage at the continuing fighting. "It is imperative that the siege of Monrovia be lifted, so that desperately-needed humanitarian relief can be brought in, peacekeepers can be quickly deployed and President Charles Taylor can depart," he said in New York on Monday.
Annan said LURD in particular had behaved atrociously by continuing to attack Monrovia. "By their reckless and criminal behaviour, they are disqualifying themselves from any leadership role in the future of their country," he warned.
According to the Liberian government, over 1,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the latest attack on the capital. Relief workers say several thousand have been wounded. Most of Monrovia's one million inhabitants are now living in squalid conditions on the brink of starvation.
Rice has more than trebled in price over the past two weeks and is increasingly difficult to find. Reuters news agency reported that some people in the city had resorted to eating cats and dogs.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
[ENDS]
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