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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: Monrovia quiet and relaxed, but battle rages in Buchanan
MONROVIA, 6 August 2003 (IRIN) - The streets of Monrovia filled with crowds of hungry but happy people on Wednesday as the guns remained silent for the second day running, but military sources said a battle raged between government and rebel forces for control of Liberia's second city Buchanan.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Liberia, Marc Destanne de Bernis, flew into Monrovia along with representatives of the main UN agencies operating in the country for a meeting with Nigerian General Festus Okonkwo, the commander of the West African peacekeeping force, which began arriving in Liberia on Monday.
They were joined later by Peter McKinley, a US Assistant Secretary of State with special responsibility for refugees and displaced people. The United Nations evacuated its international staff from Liberia on June 10 following a rebel attack on the capital, but is now preparing to re-establish a full presence in the country to re-launch relief operations.
De Bernis told IRIN afterwards: "It was important for me as the Humanitarian Coordinator to get into contact with the force commander in order to discuss more directly the modalities of our collaboration and coordination to support the vulnerable population in Monrovia."
He described it as "a productive discussion."
Before flying back to Abidjan with his team, De Bernis said: "The full return of all the UN staff to Liberia depends on the security situation. We hope the (peacekeeping) force will be deployed to secure Monrovia as soon as possible so that we can return to resume humanitarian activities."
A vanguard force of 1,500 Nigerian troops have been flying in since Monday to secure Robertsfield international airport and the city of Monrovia, 50 km away.
Captain OG Kanu, the force spokesman, said that half of the first batallion had arrived on UN helicopters from Sierra Leone and the force would send its first patrols into the city of Monrovia, 50 km away, on Thursday.
While tension relaxed in the capital and some government and rebel fighters were reported to be fraternising across the front line, Liberian military sources said a fierce battle was under way for control of Buchanan, 100 km to the east.
Rebels of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) captured the port city on July 28, but the sources said the government had counter-attacked and heavy fighting was under way inside the urban area on Wednesday.
Three US naval assault ships carrying landing craft, helicopters and 2,300 marines are standing by off the coast of Liberia, but President George Bush has not yet decided whether to send these troops ashore to join the Nigerians as peacekeepers.
However, the Pentagon said on Tuesday night that a military liason team of six to 10 people would be flown into Monrovia from the ships to provide logistical support for the West African troops.
Relief agencies have been pressing for international peacekeepers to take over control of Monrovia's port, which has been held by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement since 19 July, so that food stocks stored there can be distributed to hungry people throughout the city and more relief supplies can be brought in by sea.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that nearly half of Monrovia's one million population is in need of food aid. People living in LURD-controlled areas of the city have benefited from the rebels distributing rice stored in port warehouses. But food supplies have nearly run out in the areas of Monrovia controlled by fighters loyal to President Charles Taylor, where many people have not eaten for days.
The little rice available for sale in the government-controlled city centre is up to 20 times dearer than in the rebel-held port area.
Relief workers and military sources in Monrovia said it would probably be several days before the Nigerian peacekeepers were ready to take over security in the port, enabling food to be distributed to everyone.
LURD commanders have said they are reluctant to withdraw from the port and other areas of Monrovia and hand over full control to the peacekeepers until Taylor resigns as president and leaves the country.
Taylor has promised to resign next Monday, but he has not set a date for leaving Liberia to take up an offer of political asylum in Nigeria. The president's aides have repeatedly indicated that he is unwilling to leave until an indictment for war crimes, slapped upon him by a UN-backed Special Court in neighbouring Sierra Leone, is lifted.
The court prosecutor has accused Taylor of backing rebels who killed and maimed tens of thousands of civilians during Sierra Leone's 1991-2001 civil war and issued an international warrant for his arrest on June 4.
On Monday, lawyers representing the government of Liberia sought to bring proceedings in the International Criminal Court of Justice in The Hague to have the indictment lifted. They argued that Taylor enjoyed immunity from prosecution in other countries as an incumbent head of state. But the court said in a statement that it would take no action unless Sierra Leone consented to its jurisdiction in the case.
In the Nigerian capital, Abuja, President Olusegun Obasanjo's official spokeswoman Remi Oyo, said everything remained on track for Taylor to arrive in the country.
"There is no truth whatsoever to the speculation that President Charles Taylor has given fresh conditions for his acceptance of Nigeria's offer of asylum," she said.
"Federal Government is currently finalizing arrangements to receive President Taylor in Nigeria and is in constant dialogue with his emissaries on these arrangements," she said in a statement.
Government sources said three government buildings in the southeastern city of Calabar had been refurbished for Taylor and his entourage.
The United Nations meanwhile launched an appeal for US $69 million of emergency aid for Liberia. The country has been in a state of near constant civil war for 14 years. However relief workers hope the West African peacekeeping force will open up humanitarian corridors that will enable aid operations to resume throughout the country, most of which is occupied by the LURD and MODEL rebel movements.
The West African peacekeeping force is due to be replaced by a full-fledged UN peacekeeping force by 1 October. South Africa, Bangladesh and Serbia have all said they were discussing with the UN the possible dispatch of soldiers to join this force.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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