Cease-fire starts in war-ruined Liberia
( 2003-06-19 10:48) (Agencies)
A cease-fire took hold in war-ruined Liberia on Wednesday as political parties met to discuss an interim government that would replace President Charles Taylor. But Taylor kept quiet about a pledge to yield power to new leaders.
The document, signed Tuesday was the first formal cease-fire in the three-year war between Liberia's government and two rebel movements that have clashed in recent weeks on the outskirts of the capital Monrovia. The rebels now control about 60 percent of the country.
Rebels complained of at least two attacks after the cease-fire took hold Wednesday morning. West African mediators played down the early reports.
"It will take some time for the dust to settle," said Sony Ugoh, an official with the West African regional bloc that oversaw the signing of the deal in Accra, the capital of Ghana.
Ugoh stressed it was the combatants' responsibility to honor the cease-fire - but Liberian Deputy Defense Minister Austin Clark said clashes were still possible until a 2,000-strong, West African "stabilization force" arrives.
"If there are any problems, that is expected in the absence of troops to monitor the cease-fire," Clark said.
West African leaders have yet to give the formal authorization needed to create the force. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, executive-secretary of West Africa's regional leaders' bloc, said a US or other Western role was possible in the force. American authorities said no decision had yet been made about involvement.
In Washington, the United States ordered home the USS Kearsarge, which had been off the capital, Monrovia.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Dan Hetlage said the truce eased tensions and the amphibious assault ship and its 2,000 Marines were no longer needed. The crew was returning home from Iraq, and the United States didn't want keep them waiting off Liberia too long.
The sides signed the deal on the urgings of West African leaders, the United States, the European Union, and Taylor's representatives pledged he would yield power.
Taylor's ruling party joined other political parties and rebels Wednesday in political discussions in Accra called for under the cease-fire accord.
Under the accord, Liberia's government, rebels and political parties will seek a peace agreement within 30 days that would lead to a transition government - without Taylor.
Taylor, recently indicted by a U.N. war-crimes court and under threat of arrest, had announced at the June 4 opening of the talks that he would surrender power in the interest of peace. His six-year term would end in January.
But Taylor has never repeated the pledge, and immediately after the agreement was signed Tuesday, his spokesman suggested the cease-fire was the only binding part of the deal.
Neither Taylor nor his government made any additional public comment Wednesday about ceding power, by far the most contentious part of the accord.
Taylor, a Boston business school graduate, trained in Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's guerrilla camps and plunged Liberia into conflict in 1989 when he led a small force into the country to overthrow then-President Samuel Doe. The country was founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century.
Doe and at least 150,000 other Liberians died in the 7-year civil war that followed. Taylor emerged from the conflict as Liberia's strongest warlord and won presidential elections the next year.
If he does cede power, Taylor faces the prospect of trial at a U.N.-backed court for alleged war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone, where he allegedly supported rebels who fought a 10-year insurgency.
Taylor announced during the talks there would be no peace in Liberia as long as the indictment stood. "It has to be removed," he said.
|
