Those who still could cheered and danced and grinned yesterday as white helicopters delivered peacekeepers to Liberia, the vanguard of a force which is supposed to end one of Africa’s most savage civil wars.
Rain bucketed from grey skies but nothing could dampen the hope at Robertsfield airport, just outside the capital Monrovia, where crowds welcomed the Nigerian troops as liberators and hoisted a commander, Colonel Emeka Onwuama Egbu, on their shoulders.
”We want peace, no more war,” chanted dozens of children, and the US ambassador, John Blaney, suggested he could soon stop wearing a flak jacket beneath his suit.
The Nigerians sprinting across the runway to secure the perimeter had to dodge TV crews, an echo of the US marines 10 years ago who waded ashore in Somalia into a media phalanx.
”They look like actors, why they running so hard?” said Chipee Fines (28. ”But I thank God they’ve come, no more days of hunkering down listening to bombs.”
Around 300 Nigerians were expected by last night, the first of a 3 250-strong force from six west African nations whose job is to separate rebels and government forces and enable humanitarian relief to get to civilians suffering from hunger, thirst and cholera.
”We are going to be there until there is peace and elections are held, and of course a new government is inaugurated. That’s when we will consider our job done,” said Colonel Ganiyu Adewale, a Nigerian spokesperson.
In October the UN, which supplied yesterday’s helicopters, is due to take over what is officially a stabilisation mission, there not yet being a peace to keep.
Black smoke plumed over Monrovia from a building said to have been hit by rockets and forces loyal to President Charles Taylor seemed edgy, knowing he has bowed to international pressure to step down next week.
Streets deserted for weeks thronged with civilians yesterday as fighting eased and the chances of being hit by a stray bullet or mortar shell seemed to fall.
The rebels and government forces have promised to stop fighting once the peacekeepers are deployed.
It is a measure of Liberia’s desperation that foreign soldiers with a reputation for brutality at home should be so welcome, especially since the Nigerians who were deployed in Monrovia in 1990 used that peacekeeping mission to loot, rape and take sides in the conflict.
This time will be different, said Captain Aliyu Jabril (28) commander of the first platoon to land. ”We were not supported by other nations then. We have trained specially for this mission.”
The ragtag rebels and militias which have reduced Liberia to rubble can expect a robust response from the professionals who sang battle songs on the flight, the captain added. ”If they attack us, or civilians, we will retaliate.”
Music to the ears of the crowds clustered downtown, waiting to glimpse the force which will be known as Ecomil. The warships dispatched by President George Bush to provide logistical support have anchored beyond the horizon.
It took months of dithering for Washington and west African states to agree this intervention, during which more than 1 000 civilians died as rebels pushed deeper into Monrovia. The Nigerians are still complaining that Washington’s $10-million is far too paltry.
Sixty six of those for whom the helicopters came too late were buried near the airport yesterday, the helicopters audible as seven men dug a pit 2,4-metres deep, 4,5-metres wide and nine metres long.
The morgue at JFK hospital ran out of body bags so the back of the Scania truck was a mound of flesh, men, women and children, some partially clothed, some in bandages, most naked.
This was the third mass grave carved in the sandy grounds of Cheflin barracks. Lowered on a stretcher one-by-one to the edge, each time a labourer positioned the head to face the sky, but the attempt at dignity was futile.
The next second the stretcher was tipped and the corpse thudded to the bottom. First a teenage boy, then an elderly man, a middle-aged woman, a young man missing his right leg, a boy with a blue sock and black sock, an infant, more like a doll. On and on, lower, tip, thud.
As if to hide them first, the diggers started throwing sand on the boy and girl, about six and four respectively, who might have been siblings.
The body of ”General” Henry Dobor (22) was retrieved by four members of his Strike Fire unit for burial elsewhere. Shot two days ago by a comrade during an argument, the general will be succeeded by John Feyiah (20) who did not think the Nigerians’ arrival signalled the end of fighting.
A young woman who recognised her husband collapsed and was given first aid when she appeared to stop breathing.
Cecilia Rowland (31) monkey apple leaves stuffed up her nose against the smell, watched to see if her missing brother, Borboro Gibson (46) was part of the Scania consignment.
He was not, though she recognised two friends, men called Opa and Samuel. Tears welled as she threw in a handful of sand. ”May you rest in peace.” – Guardian Unlimited Â