By Lansana Fofana
FREETOWN, Aug 12 1999 (IPS)

This week’s attack on Liberia by armed dissidents will destabilise the west African country, and threaten the region, Liberia’s President Charles Taylor has warned.

Taylor, in a nationwide broadcast Wednesday, accused neighbour Guinea of backing the dissidents and allowing its territory to be used as “a launching pad for subversive activities”.

The Liberian leader declared a state of emergency in the Upper Lofa county, on the northern border with Guinea, and urged all able-bodied persons to present themselves for military engagement.

According to Liberian radio reports, monitored in the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown, the district headquarter town of Kolahun and neighbouring villages have been overran by the dissident soldiers, forcing hundreds of residents to flee the region.

There have been no reports of casualties yet, nor the exact identity of the invaders. What is clear though is that the dissidents invaded from across the porous border with Guinea, dislodging government troops.

A Liberian journalist, Sam Howard, who has been covering the story said Thursday that the Liberian security officials were caught unaware by the attack.

“The Liberian security forces were not anticipating an attack and eye-witnesses told me several people were injured and have been brought to Monrovia (the capital of Liberia) for medical treatment,” Howard said.

Unlike a similar border incursion in June, which the Liberian authorities blamed on exiled opposition leader, Alhaji Kromah, who lost the 1997 presidential elections, the government this time is not accusing any faction leader.

“As commander-in-chief of the Liberian armed forces, I have ordered full mobilisation of troops and logistics to contain the situation,” Taylor said on Thursday.

However, political analysts in the region say the problem is a much more complex one. Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone share common borders. And, with the exception of Guinea, the two English- speaking states have gone through eight years of bloody civil strife, that impoverished their respective countries.

“The sub-region is volatile, with armed men moving back and forth through the porous borders and conflict in one of the three states, means problem for the other,” political scientist, John Kamara of the University of Sierra Leone, told IPS Thursday.

Foreign envoys in Freetown have also confirmed the abduction of six European aid workers in the affected region, although this cannot be immediately linked to the current armed incursion.

A Western diplomat, based in Freetown, warned that, “If this unfolding rebellion in Liberia is not brought under control, the peace process in Sierra Leone will collapse and the sub-region plunged once again in turmoil.”

Earlier this week, a field commander for the Sierra Leonean rebel outfit, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which recently signed a peace deal with the government, claimed Guinean troops are attacking their positions in eastern Sierra Leone, around the border region with Liberia and Guinea.

Sam Bockarie, the commander, threatened an all-out war in the sub-region if the alleged attacks are not contained. The Guinean authorities dismissed the allegations as baseless and pledged their commitment to peace in the sub-region.

Liberia has closed its border with Guinea and put its troops on high alert. It was only two years ago that the Liberian civil war came to a halt, after killing more than 200,000 mainly civilians.

Elections were held in 1997 bringing to power Taylor, who was leader of the main rebel faction, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).

But alleged rights abuses by the Taylor administration and the slow pace of economic regeneration and national reconciliation, is causing dissentions.

Since he was sworn into office, Taylor has done more promises than improving the standards of living of his people. The capital Monrovia is still without electricity and running water.

All key opposition figures have fled the country and armed opposition to President Taylor’s rule was quite anticipated.

There are growing fears in Sierra Leone that any instability in Liberia may adversely affect the west African nation, which was sucked into war in March 1991, as a spillover of the Liberian conflict.

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