West Africa: Ambassadors Expelled from Liberia, Gbagbo and Ouattara Meet

19 March 2001
allAfrica.com
By Staff reporter

The ambassadors of Guinea and Sierra Leone have been ordered out of Liberia by Charles Taylor as border hostilities continue.

Sierra Leone's ambassador Kemoh Salia-Bao and Guinea ambassador Baba Soare have seven days to leave Liberia. The two diplomats have been accused of involvement in "acts incompatible with their status".

The Liberian government gave no details and there has been no reaction from the embassies of Guinea or Sierra Leone.

The decision to expel the two diplomats casts further doubt in Monrovia about the possibility of getting the three nations to mend fences.

Meanwhile Côte d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo and the main opposition leader Alassane Ouattara met Monday for the first time since elections five months ago. The two leaders met in Togo, and afterwards the Togolese foreign minister said they two leaders were agreed to work towards reconciliation.

Mr Ouattara's party, the Rally of Republicans (RDR), boycotted last year's presidential elections after he was prevented from standing for president on the disputed grounds that he is not Ivorian. Violent clashes that left 170 dead followed.

Municipal elections are scheduled for next Sunday.

I have no pledges to make," Mr. Gbagbo told reporters after the meeting. He did speak on Mr Ouattara's conditions for a political truce: "How can a citizen impose conditions on a state?"

Mr. Ouattara has called for an end to what he has termed the "Stalinist" repression of opposition forces in Côte d'Ivoire. The Rally of Republicans (RDR) Party he leads has also called for an investigation of a series of rapes and killings associated with the political conflict.

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