Trapped residents of Liberia’s embattled capital emerged from hiding places by the tens of thousands on Thursday, welcoming a 10-member West African and US advance team that they hoped signalled the start of international rescue after two months of devastating siege.
In Accra, Ghana, key West African leaders gathered under US and United Nations (UN) pressure for a firm deployment date of first troops of a peace mission, delayed for weeks amid debt-strapped West African nations’ quest for funding.
In Monrovia, blasted with shells and littered with bullet casings after eight weeks of rebel-government battles for the capital, arrival of the tiny scouting team itself seemed to bring peace — for a few hours.
Near two weeks of mortar bombardments and machine-gun battles over bridges leading to the government-held downtown halted and starving families scurried out in search of food.
”We are hungry, but seeing these people we are full this morning,” businessman Mohammed Dauda (31) said, as refugees poured out of hiding places, waving handkerchiefs and flashing peace signs.
”We hope this marks the beginning of the end.”
Rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy opened attacks on Monrovia in early June, pressing home a 3-year campaign to topple President Charles Taylor, a UN-indicted warlord behind 14 years of near-perpetual conflict in the once-prosperous West African nation.
Fighting has killed more than 1 000 civilians by aid groups’ count, and left the near cut-off capital desperately short of food and clean water, with cholera and other diseases rampant. On Thursday, as crowds lined the streets to see the 10-member scouting team pass by, women ran out in search of food, scuttling back to hiding places with bundles of greens on their heads.
The advance team, with Nigerian Brigadier General Festus Okonkwo leading eight other West Africans and one American, arrived late on Wednesday to check conditions for a promised first wave of peacekeeping troops.
Inspectors traveled through downtown, passing unexploded shells and huts with tin roofs blown off by blasts, and to the US Embassy, overlooking the Atlantic. Hundreds poured out of hiding there to welcome them.
”We want peace,” crowds chanted, at times.
”This is a sign of peace coming,” said one war-displaced man, Hamilton Woods, smiling broadly.
West African leaders have pledged a peace force since soon after the siege started in June. Nigeria, the region’s military power, pledged to send two battalions totalling 1 500 men as a vanguard force but first it wants help paying the costs, estimated at $2-million a day.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan pressed the West African leaders on Wednesday to commit to a deployment date.
Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo arrived in Accra for talks with the presidents of Ghana and Togo on ”how to fast-forward the Liberian peace process, particularly the deployment of troops”, Ghana Foreign Ministry official George Abotey said.
The summit came as three US warships steamed toward Liberia carrying what US President Bush said could be limited support for a joint West African-UN peace force. The ships were about one or two days away from reaching Liberia.
The United States, which oversaw Liberia’s 19th century founding by freed American slaves, has promised $10-million in logistical support for the West African mission. Bush has made the deployment of troops contingent on Taylor stepping down and a ceasefire being in place.
The United States on Wednesday asked the UN to authorise a multinational force for Liberia, followed by a UN deployment by October 1.
The advance inspection team was meeting government ministers and US officials on Thursday in the battered capital. Some of the basic tasks scheduled for the next two days include determining where the peace force will live and how much fuel is available for it.
Any initial deployment would be limited to the capital, authorities said.
Liberia’s second, smaller rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, declared on Thursday that peacekeepers were welcome in its area — joining Liberia’s government and the leading insurgent group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, in insisting the foreign deployment would be greeted warmly.
”We are very elated to have the first wave,” Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea said at the south-eastern port of Buchanan, where his forces were pressing a three-day attempt to retake the city, which was captured by rebels on Monday.
”We see it as a very, very good thing,” Chea said. ”Their arrival here is long overdue.”
Chea claimed heavy battles in Buchanan on Thursday while rebels said the city was quiet and in their control. – Sapa-AP