Johannesburg — As desperate Liberians renew their pleas for an international intervention force to step in to end the fighting that has cost hundreds of lives, haggling over the financing for West African troops continues to delay their deployment. The region has yet to set a date for the peacekeepers to be sent in.
Perhaps mindful of the memory of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda when the United Nations stood accused by current Rwandan President Paul Kagame of failing to save lives, UN secretary general Kofi Annan wants a peacekeeping force to reach Liberia fast. He has requested that the Security Council prepare for the immediate departure of Nigerian troops to Liberia.
Annan also said the Council should take an "early decision" on a UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia, to include West African and other international troops. "Subject to guidance by the Security Council, it is my intention to proceed immediately with the necessary preparations for the envisaged United Nations operation in Liberia," announced the secretary general.
Annan was the UN peacekeeping chief during the mass killings in Rwanda in 1994 and may still have the organisation's perceived failure on his conscience. He is unlikely to want to add a failure in Liberia to that list.
"I am deeply concerned at the dramatic deterioration of the situation on the ground following renewed fighting in Monrovia on July 18," Annan wrote in a letter to the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday. He concluded that "it is therefore absolutely essential to accelerate the deployment [of regional peacekeepers]". Reiterating his anxiety about the carnage in the Liberian capital, Annan asked the Council to approve, speed up and dispatch the vanguard of the West African "Ecomil" force to Liberia.
He recommended that the Security Council give the UN mission across the border in Sierra Leone (Unamsil), "the necessary mandate to use its resources to provide full support for the deployment and sustainment" of the first Nigerian battalion "for a limited period in Liberia." Annan concluded that it was essential that the Ecomil force be given a "robust mandate in order to ensure that it has a credible deterrence capability."
Nigeria is to provide the bulk of the West African peacekeepers for Liberia, with smaller troop contingents expected from Ghana, Senegal and Mali - and possibly other countries. The objective is for them to create a "zone of separation" between Liberias warring factions, who continued their battles in and outside Monrovia on Wednesday.
Aid workers are warning of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in Liberia unless the fighting ends. The regional peacekeepers must also provide a secure environment for humanitarian agencies to assist tens of thousands of displaced people - including severely malnourished infants - in a country that is fast running out of food, drinking water and other essentials.
After warnings from Annan and the United States to fighters from the main rebel faction, urging them to hold their fire or face the consequences, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) declared a unilateral ceasefire in Monrovia on Tuesday. It was the 11th straight day of fighting in the city, which has killed hundreds of civilians and left many others injured.
But Lurds ceasefire announcement Tuesday was almost immediately rejected by the government of President Charles Taylor, which said it had no confidence in Lurds word and found the rebels conditions "unacceptable". Lurd added that it would only stop shooting once Taylor's troops stopped their attacks.
"How many times in one week can they call a ceasefire? We dont put any value in it," Taylors Information Minister, Reginald Goodridge, told Reuters, which reported the crackle of bullets and the crash of mortar bombs echoing across the city late Tuesday. Previous ceasefire announcements by Lurd, totalling four since a June 17 peace accord was signed for Liberia, have failed to end the battles.
But this time the rebel fighters agreed to withdraw to the Freeport in Monrovia, which they pledged to hand over to international peacekeepers when they arrived. Lurd said it would then pull back 10km further to the strategic Po River. But Taylors government demanded that the rebels move right out of the embattled capital, back to positions they held when the first truce was signed in June.
Rebels from Liberia's smaller Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model) faction seized the second port city, Buchanan on Monday, prompting a counter-attack by government troops.
The Economic Commission of West African States (Ecowas) announced Wednesday that it was sending a 12-person military reconnaissance team to Liberia to assess the situation and work out logistics for sending in peacekeepers. The mission, made up of regional, American and British military experts, was expected to be there for two days.
Ecowas heads of state are scheduled to hold an emergency summit to discuss Liberia on Thursday in Ghana, the current chair of the regional organisation. A dispute over who should bear the cost of the peacekeeping operation has delayed progress despite growing pressure to get boots on the ground in Liberia
On Wednesday, Annan said he expected Ecowas to indicate their position "today".
US tables motion at UN
The US announced that it would introduce a resolution in the UN Security Council on Wednesday authorizing the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in Liberia, the State Department said. "We're... tabling today a UN resolution in New York," spokesman Richard Boucher said.
He added that the draft would authorize the mission under Chapter 7 of the UN charter which allows the UN to use force if the situation demands. "It would grant authority for peacekeepers to support a ceasefire and to provide a secure environment for humanitarian deliveries and it would declare the Council's readiness to move rapidly to establish a follow-on UN stabilization force that could take over," Boucher told reporters.
Boucher said Washington believed the resolution met the concerns about Liberia raised on Tuesday by Annan in his letter to the Security Council.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, on a visit to London on Tuesday, indicated that the deployment of his troops had been repeatedly held up because they were awaiting more financial commitments from the U.S. and elsewhere. Washington has already pledged US$10m to airlift the advance Nigerian battalion to Liberia, which Obasanjo said he expected on the ground "within a few days".
U.S. President George Bush said Washington would lend its support to help end the civil war in Liberia, but only after there is a ceasefire and Charles Taylor has quit power. Bush repeated Wednesday that the U.S. force would be there only to support the West African peacekeepers, adding, "the conditions that I laid out for the Liberian rescue mission still exist: Charles Taylor must go, a cease fire must be in place and we will be there to help Ecowas."
The American leader again stressed that U.S. troop strength "will be limited. And the time frame will be limited," without specifying details. Three U.S. warships are on their way to the region. War-weary Liberians and concerned regional and Western governments are pressing Washington, with close historical ties to the country founded by freed American slaves, to get involved now and put combat troops on the ground.
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America's top Africa diplomat, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner, is currently on a visit to West Africa. He started his tour in Guinea, widely seen to be backing the Lurd rebels, who launched their war against Taylor in 1999. Kansteiner was expected to ask the government in Conakry to stop its alleged arms supplies to Lurd.
The State Department spokesman, Boucher, told journalists Tuesday: "I expect [Kansteiner] will take up the overall situation in the region, but also reaffirm our view that all neighbouring states should take steps to make sure that there are no supplies or support reaching the rebels from neighbouring countries." Boucher added: "thats been a part of our diplomacy in a number of places and Im sure that Assistant Secretary Kansteiner will take that up in Guinea as well."
One of Kansteiners deputies, Pamela Bridgewater, visited Conakry at the weekend, echoed Washingtons concern and reportedly voiced "indignation" over Guineas "active support" for Lurd. The French News Agency (AFP), quoting an unnamed diplomat, said that on her visit to Guinea, Bridgewater had told officials that spent cartridges from Guinean army weapons were found at the US Embassy compound in Monrovia, which has come under heavy shelling last week.
Speaking Wednesday, after talks with the Guinean Prime Minister Lamine Sidime, Kansteiner said their two countries had "agreed to work together" to end the crisis and the bloody conflict in Liberia and to bring peace to the country "from now on."
Kansteiner was expected to head to the Ghanaian capital, Accra, to attend the emergency regional summit on Liberia on Thursday.
