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Posted on 07/08/2003 11:03:04 AM PDT by propertius
Liberian Forces Block U.S. Military Mission 18 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Emmanuel Braun
MONROVIA (Reuters) - Gun-toting Liberian troops stopped a U.S. military team from reaching a refugee camp on Tuesday as President Bush (news - web sites) vowed to work with the United Nations (news - web sites) and Africans for peace in the country.
Bush said he had still not decided whether to send U.S. peacekeepers into the West African state, founded by freed American slaves as a haven of liberty in the 19th century.
Thousands of war-fatigued Liberians surged out to welcome the U.S. reconnaissance mission as it began work on Tuesday in the coastal capital, but things got off to a bad start as it was halted by forces loyal to Liberian President Charles Taylor.
The troops stopped the convoy at the Iron Gate checkpoint outside the capital Monrovia as it headed for a camp housing thousands of refugees, saying it did not have clearance.
Taylor described the incident as a "diplomatic boo-boo," saying U.S. authorities had not coordinated with the Liberian government or told them where they wanted to go. "I think it was a slip up on the part of the embassy," he told CNN.
"The area that they were going into, there are troops in the field who do not know what is going on," he said. "We welcome the troops here and we will take them wherever they want to go."
The U.S. embassy said it had been assured there would be no further hold ups and the team resumed work in the afternoon, visiting displaced people sheltering at the city stadium.
Speaking on the first day of a visit to Africa, Bush said he would work with the United Nations and regional West African bloc ECOWAS on preserving a cease-fire in the country, which has been torn by nearly 14 years of civil war.
"We're in the process of determining what is necessary to maintain the cease-fire," Bush told reporters after a meeting with West African leaders in Senegal.
He also reiterated his demand that Taylor step down. Wanted for war crimes by an international court, Taylor has accepted an offer of asylum from regional giant Nigeria but it is not clear how soon he will go.
Taylor said he would stay until a smooth transition of power could be guaranteed. "(if) Charles Taylor gets up and high-tails out of Monrovia...isn't that a recipe for anarchy?" he told CNN.
But he said that did not necessarily mean he would stay until U.S. forces arrived. "If the United States has a problem committing its forces while I'm still here I think one way to resolve that is to help ECOWAS immediately to get a few battalions on the ground as a bridging force."
HUGE CROWDS
Liberians want U.S. peacekeepers to end years of violence and believe only they can win respect from a generation of young fighters nurtured on war and inured to atrocities.
Cheering crowds swamped the reconnaissance convoy as it drove through Monrovia, rushing forward to shout "We want Bush" and "No more war, we want peace." A six-year-old boy was hit by one of the U.S. cars and treated at the embassy clinic.
At one point, police fired shots in the air to drive back the crowd. Uneasy-looking U.S. Marines leapt into their jeeps.
"I'm so very happy that the American people are here. We've been suffering for years," said Ernest Togba, who was stuck in hospital during rebel attacks that left hundreds dead in June.
The U.S. team is 32-strong including its Marine security contingent and seen as a possible precursor to a larger force.
West African countries have pledged 3,000 troops to keep a peace and want U.S. forces to help them bring that up to 6,000. But Washington well remembers a bloody withdrawal from Somalia 10 years ago after a humanitarian intervention went awry. (Additional reporting by Randall Mikkelsen in Dakar, Manoah Esipisu in Maputo)
You mean troops from countries who care less about these people than the Liberian troops? Ah, no thanks.
I know most of this trip is political, but this country certainly wants our help...
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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Is this correct? I read conflicting info on FR. Anyway, good. We don't need to be there in the first place.
Yes, it is correct. The country was founded by ex-slaves from the US
Liberian Flag
Liberia was founded, not by freed slaves, but by the American Colonization Society (ACS), an uneasy coalition of slave-holding Southerners and moderate abolitionists who believed that blacks, roaming free in the U.S. could only mean trouble. So they determined that the best course would be to ship them back to Africa: exactly the position taken today by white supremacists.
The ACS, sponsored by several state goverments, sent boat-loads of freed slaves from Maryland, Virginia, New York, and elsewhere, to Liberia in the early 1800s, and then decided that independence would be the best course, as the colony was taxing the financial resources of the ACS – and rebellion against the Society's authority endemic. A Declaration of Independence and a Constitution were drawn up, supposedly based on the American model, and the familiar triad of legislative, executive and judicial branches were set up by the "Americo-Liberians," as they called themselves.
But there was one big difference with the original U.S. model: in the Liberian version, the "Americo-Liberians" were legally privileged over and above the native inhabitants, and they lorded it over the natives just as the white Southern aristocracy had once lorded over them. Only "Americo-Liberians" could own property, vote, and run for office: These legal inequalities were written into the Liberian Constitution, as well as the Declaration of Independence. The Liberian state was an instrument in the hands of the Americo-Liberians for keeping the natives – officially deemed "aborigines" – down on the farm, literally.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/941650/posts
First, it's not true that slaves founded Liberia. It was founded by the American Colonization Society, a group of white slave owners who believed that slavery was destined to end in the U. S., but couldn't imagine whites and blacks living together. Some 13,000 black Americans were sent to Liberia in the 1800s, many against their will. Today, descendants of slaves make up a small minority of the 3.3 million Liberians.
I hope you were joking
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