POLITICS-LIBERIA: Fierce Fighting On The Guinea Border

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Mar 9 2001 (IPS) - After a bit of lull in rebel activities in Liberia’s northern county of Lofa, on the border with Guinea, fighting has resumed once again with a ferocity that the authorities in Monrovia can no longer downplay.

“The dissidents attacked with heavy weapons, machine guns, and mortars and the situation now is that they (rebels) still control parts of Vonjama town,” remarked Defence Minister Daniel Chea this week.

The new round of fighting erupted Monday when armed rebels crossed into northern Liberia from Guinea, beating back government reinforcements sent to the area. No casualty figures have yet been given on either side, but the authorities say between 15,000 and 20,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes.

In addition to Vonjama, the district headquarter town of Kolahun also has been captured by the dissidents, who have been fighting to topple the government of President Charles Taylor.

As fighting escalates, the Liberian government has been quick to once again blame its next-door neighbour Guinea, which it accuses of arming and supporting the dissidents. Guinea has denied the charges and instead blame Liberia of fomenting trouble in the sub-region.

Said Chea: “This is a declaration of war against Liberia by Guinea and it is totally unacceptable.” The defence minister added that his government will pursue the rebels and “run them back to where they came from in the first place.”

But, there seems to be a big hiccup for the beleaguered Liberian government which has been faced with an arms embargo for years running, and also a pending one that the United Nations Security Council describes as “selective” sanctions, covering diamond exports from Liberia and a travel ban on government officials from that West African country. The Council voted Wednesday but the sanctions will come into force in May as punishment for Liberia’s alleged backing of rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Since last year, rebel forces have been trying to oust President Taylor, who was himself a warlord that shot his way to power after a seven-year guerrilla war. The civil war, which ended in 1997, left an estimated 150,000 people dead, towns and villages destroyed and tens of thousands forced to flee into exile into neighbouring countries.

But with porous borders, armed activities are bound to continue in the Mano River States of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. In fact, Guinea is already embroiled in a nasty civil conflict that has claimed a number of lives and left millions of dollars worth of property destroyed. The authorities in Guinea blame the armed activities in their country on Liberia.

To relax border tensions among the three feuding neighbours, the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) has assembled a 1,600-strong peacekeeping force known as ECOMOG to patrol the border and prevent armed activities. But the force is yet to be deployed as bureaucratic bottlenecks have delayed the mission.

Already, there is a serious refugee crisis at Guinea’s southern borders with Sierra Leone and Liberia. They are said to number more than 200,000 and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has began repatriating them home, mostly to Sierra Leone.

But it seems the latest UN Security Council vote for sanctions to be imposed on Liberia are giving the beleaguered regime a headache that only adds up to its compounding domestic problems. In a pre-emptive move to dodge the embargo, the Taylor administration on the eve of the votes on the sanctions, unilaterally imposed a ban on the export of Liberian diamonds “until a new certification system was put in place.”

The government also grounded all Liberian registered aircrafts for what it described as “a regulatory measure.” These aircrafts have often been accused of involvement in gun-running and smuggling of so-called “blood diamonds” from Sierra Leone’s rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

The attempts, however, did not stop the Security Council from imposing the sanctions anyway, except that on the intervention of West African regional leaders, they will be delayed by two months in the hope that the Liberian authorities will have a change of heart.

President Taylor’s government has been largely isolated by the international community partly for its backing of the RUF in illegal dealings, and partly also for its human rights abuses at home. The government has been cracking down hard on both real and perceived opposition and major opponents of the regime have either been incarcerated, forced into exile, or murdered. The cases of politically motivated murders have been growing since Taylor assumed office in 1997.

This has brought pressure to bear upon Taylor from religious and civic groups which have been in the vanguard of the call for sanctions. The country is badly devastated as a result of the civil war, but donors and aid agencies are reluctant to move in and help because of the state of insecurity.

Meanwhile, in the embattled Lofa County region, there is speculation about looming humanitarian crisis as thousands of civilians face the prospects of hunger, disease and starvation. The government of President Taylor has so far ruled out dialogue with the dissident forces and analysts predict a long-drawn conflict that threatens to tear the impoverished West African state apart.