allAfrica.com: Gambia: Ecowas Extra-Ordinary Summit Change Course for ECOMOG (Page 1 of 2)

In the recent editions of Focus on Politics, we have been trying to unravel the mystery that created confusion within the ECOWAS community during the civil war in Liberia. We are particularly interested in this event because of the fact that the president of The Gambia was the Chairman of the Mediation Committee as well as the role played by a Gambian opposition party, the PDOIS, in trying to help to shape a direction toward the peaceful resolution of the Liberian conflict.

In the last issue we have stopped where we wrote that the Foroyaa opined that an elected government no matter how inadequate was more democratic than the setting up of an interim government which was not elected at all.

Let us continue from where we stopped.

The PDOIS wrote a letter to the ECOWAS members of the Authority of heads of state on the 26 October, 1990 which was written in both English and French, when they realized that an Extra-ordinary summit was about to be convened. PDOIS stressed in that letter that the mediation committee was right in concluding that there was a government which could not govern but it was also wrong to assume that the rest of the warring parties were nothing but anarchists, who were holding the rest of the citizens as hostages. This they opined was not a realistic assessment of the situation. They asserted that what prevailed in Liberia at the time was a government which wanted to govern but could not govern because it lacked the authority to do so.

On the other hand they said, one had another force which had the strategic objective of over throwing the old to establish a new government but was yet to achieve its objective. And so what prevailed in Liberia at the time was a state of ungovernability.

PDOIS opined that the fundamental lesson to learn is that the mediation committee relied on the wrong tactical instrument to deal with the political situation that prevailed in Liberia before Mr. Doe's death. This they insisted was precisely the reason why the crisis intensified.

PDOIS asserted that ECOMOG could not seat an interim government by military means in Liberia unless it takes the whole of Liberia from Taylor's forces and disarm them; that the NPFL cannot be in charge of Monrovia unless it takes Monrovia from ECOMOG and disarm them; that at that moment, NPFL was closer to its strategic objective since it has most of Liberia under its authority and control.

It was the opinion of The PDOIS that the most ECOMOG was achieving was to prevent NPFL from attaining its strategic objective. Foroyaa reported that many people in Gambia were beginning to see Dr. Amos Sawyer as a power hungry some body who would prefer to see Liberia burning to ashes just to be seated as an interim president. On the other hand PDOIS observed that NPFL would not be able to achieve peace if it isolated Dr. Sawyer completely; if it opposes any diplomatic initiative to enable the mediation committee to save face. Hence, they said, the present realities called for the diplomatic instrument to be put into force.

HOW DID PDOIS SEE THE DIPLOMATIC INSTRUMENT?

The PDOIS letter stated that since the chairman of ECOWAS and the mediation committee was in Banjul and since the mediation committee did not want to lose it's credibility by having talks relocated elsewhere, then Gambian troops should be withdrawn from ECOMOG so as to transform Banjul into a zone for peaceful settlement of disputes. This would be a useful diplomatic move which they thought the mediation committee should endorse.

Secondly, the letter went on, since all other forces acknowledge the leadership of Dr. Sawyer, talks should be initiated between Sawyer and Taylor without preconditions to enable them discuss with sincerity, so as to come up with an action for the establishment of a new interim government that would facilitate National reconciliation and fair elections.

The third recommendation in PDOIS' letter was that once this interim government was created, its principal task would be to oversee a dissolution between Mr. Taylor's commanders and Mr. Johnson's commanders in order to see how a joint command could be established to integrate their forces to create a new national army, which would be transformed into a disciplined national force at the command of the interim government.

Lastly, the letter adviced, once the discussion between Dr. Sawyer and Taylor started,ECOMOG and NPFL forces should agree on a cease fire in preparation for the final withdrawal of the ECOMOG forces out of Liberian soil on the basis of an agreement between Sawyer and Taylor.

PDOIS finally asserted that, this and this alone should constitute the way of ensuring that the Liberian people take full command of their destiny. They also cautioned that policies must correspond to the requirements of each political situation; that changes in situation therefore require corresponding changes in policies and tactics to achieve them. PDOIS however called for flexibility to attain a peaceful settlement of the crisis not rigidity.

So by 27th of November, an extraordinary summit of the Authority of the Heads of State of ECOWAS was held in Banjul. The reason for the summit was because some members of the ECOWAS were not happy or comfortable with the steps taken by the mediation committee. Some felt that the mediation committee was only mandated to facilitate the amicable settlement of disputes between states; that it had no mandate to interfere in an internal matter in the way it did; and that others were simply concerned with the implications of the intervention without pronouncing reasons.

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