POLITICS-LIBERIA: Fresh Violence Threatens Fragile Peace

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Oct 3 2003 (IPS) - Liberia’s president Moses Blah has blamed the UN peacekeepers for failing to prevent this week’s shooting incident in which at least three persons were killed in the capital Monrovia.

"The incident on Wednesday was an attempt to oust me and destabilise my government," said 56-year-old Blah in a radio interview Thursday. "I think the blame lies squarely on the peacekeeping forces who failed to prevent the outbreak of violence," Blah added.

His comments followed confrontation between supporters of the government and fighters belonging to the main rebel group, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD).

An eyewitness told IPS by telephone that a convoy of LURD rebels who were escorting their leader, Sheku Damante Konneh, to the capital for a meeting with President Blah got into a fracas with pro-government forces when their convoy was halted and asked to disarm.

Konneh also has charged that Wednesday’s incident was a plot to assassinate him.

The meeting has been put on hold, while calm has returned to the capital. But the future certainly hangs in the balance, with the estimated 15,000 UN peacekeepers all still to arrive in the war-ravaged West African state.

The UN Secretary General’s special envoy to Liberia, Jacques Klein, lashed out at both the LURD rebels and their government and militia rivals on Friday for the outbreak of fighting.

"Time is running out for these people," Klein said. "They are raping, looting and murdering their own people. And until we disarm them, these sorts of incidents will continue."

Klein says that disarmament will take time and that is when more troops are drafted into the country.

This week, the 3,500 West African peacekeeping troops in Liberia were blue helmeted and put under the United Nations. They are composed mainly of two Nigerian battalions, some troops from Ghana, Mali, Senegal and Guinea Bissau.

Said Klein: "It will take two to three months before we get in all the other UN troops and then start the process of disarming the combatants. Liberians are waiting to see when the disarmament of 30,000 combatants, including child soldiers, will commence. The government of President Blah has said this would be a priority once the UN takes over fully.

The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has been mandated to monitor the cease-fire agreement between rebel groups and government forces and create conducive atmosphere for free and fair elections by Oct. 2005

Klein describes the LURD rebels as a group of gangsters and not a military group of any sort, warning that people who "commit human rights abuses against civilians will eventually pay the price for their actions".

At least half a million Liberians – out of a population of 2.7 million – are described as displaced by the conflict, according to aid agencies.

In two weeks, a new interim government which would he headed by businessman Gyude Bryant will be sworn into office to run the affairs of state up until the time elections are held.

LURD rebels and another smaller group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) have been fighting a brutal war for four years with the aim of toppling the then Liberian leader Charles Taylor.

Taylor himself was forced into exile, in Calabar, Nigeria after being blamed for putting hurdles on the way to peace. He himself is facing an indictment for alleged war crimes by the UN-backed special court in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Most parts of the embattled country is controlled by rebel forces, expect the capital Monrovia. There are believed to be some 30,000 armed combatants, including auxiliaries militia forces scattered throughout the country, a factor that is posing threat to the fragile peace in the country.

Liberian exiled political analyst, John Toe, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, said: "I’m not sure we have total peace as yet. Until the guns are taken away from those combatants and their eventual demobilization, peace in Liberia will remain an illusion."