Liberians rally for US help as shaky truce is called

The Sunday Times ^ | June 29 2003

[knighthawk]

LIBERIAN rebels declared their second ceasefire in 10 days as forces loyal to President Charles Taylor pushed them to the capital's limits after days of fierce fighting that left hundreds dead.

This week's battle for Monrovia sent thousands fleeing and turned up the heat on the former warlord, who was told by US President George Bush on Friday to step down and end a war that has spread turmoil through West Africa.

As the guns fell silent after the truce was announced, hundreds of displaced people massed outside the US embassy, calling on Mr Bush to send in American troops to preserve the fragile ceasefire.

Rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) said their ceasefire would let through aid to civilians and "avoid a grotesque humanitarian catastrophe".

Defence Minister Daniel Chea welcomed the truce, saying Mr Taylor's forces would also hold fire.

It is the second ceasefire in 10 days. In that time the coastal city experienced some of the heaviest fighting since a civil war in the 1990s left bodies strewn in pot-holed streets.

The rebels have been under foreign pressure to stop fighting or risk losing credibility in their war against Mr Taylor, who is under UN sanctions and wanted by an international court for war crimes. Stop-start peace talks to end 14 years of almost non-stop war were adjourned for a week in Ghana because of the fighting, but a West African mediator said rebel and government delegates had vowed to respect the fledgling truce.

Fears of a bloodbath in Monrovia have drawn fresh calls for US intervention in a country founded more than 150 years ago by freed American slaves, but officials in Washington said there was no plan to send a peacekeeping force.

Outside the heavily fortified US embassy, hundreds of desperate people chanted: "We want peace, now, now, now."

Some waved banners that read: "Bush, please help".

About 300 civilians were killed in this week's attack, and 1000 wounded. Up to 400 died in fighting earlier this month.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[knighthawk]

Liberians wish US would liberate them too
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/875394/posts

[schaketo]

Call the French! We're fresh out of the policing Africa business.

[knighthawk]

International community calls for US intervention in Liberia

.U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for a multinational intervention force to oversee a truce in the war-torn country of Liberia. No fighting between rebel and government forces has been reported since Friday, but aid organisations have warned of shortages of food and water for the estimated quarter of a million refugees in the capital, Monrovia. The main rebel group said it called a ceasefire and withdrew from the city to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, but Liberian President Charles Taylor claims his forces drove the rebels out.

Both Britain and France have urged the United States, which has historic ties to Liberia, to lead an intervention force. West African countries are also being asked to send troops. Rebels, who control 60 percent of Liberia, have tried to take Monrovia twice in ten days, triggering fighting that has killed at least 700 and displaced tens of thousands.

http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,4789_W_904533,00.html

[Captain Kirk]

Yeah, and the U.S. is dumb enough to do it too, as soldiers continue to die in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[Captain Kirk]

Wanna bet!? I'll lay odds that Dubya will get us into this mess. The Wilsonian hubris is administration is overpowering these days and, moreover, it will help buy off the black caucus.

[bart99]

Sorry..... time for the French, Germans, Russia, and China - all 'members' of the international community who want peace in the world - to send THEIR troops.

[Prodigal Son]

bump

[squidly]

You really want them running around flexing their muscles? China and Russia?