Annan Urges U.S. to Deploy Troops in Liberia Now

Reuters ^ | 07-21-03

[Brian S]

Mon July 21, 2003 04:04 PM ET

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the United States on Monday to deploy troops in turbulent Liberia "before it is too late" and warned rebel groups that any seizure of power would not be recognized by the international community.

President Bush said the United States was working with regional nations, the Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS, to determine when peacekeeping troops will be able to move into Liberia, but he gave no numbers or date. Bush also pledged to work with the United Nations to support a cease-fire, an indication that the White House was waiting until fighting subsided.

"I think we can really salvage the situation if troops were to be deployed urgently and promptly," Annan told reporters.

He renewed his call to ECOWAS to send in peacekeepers without delay and urged the United States "to spare no effort to support this deployment and to announce its own decision on the deployment of U.S. troops before it is too late."

"I believe that we need to pay urgent attention to the situation in Liberia, because Liberia today is poised between hope and disaster," Annan said.

At least 20 mortar bombs smashed into the diplomatic quarter close to the U.S. embassy compound, killing at least three people, as fighting raged in Liberia's capital Monrovia.

Some 10,000 people are crammed into the U.S. embassy compound and about 70-100 U.S. Marines have been sent to Monrovia to guard the embassy.

One bomb hit in the embassy compound itself as rebel troops of the Liberian United For Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, pounded Monrovia. The rebels are fighting to overthrow the President Charles Taylor.

Annan said all parties, particularly the rebels, should observe a cease-fire and warned "that any attempt to seize power by force would be unacceptable to the international community."

Meanwhile, the United Nations withdrew its last seven international relief workers from Monrovia, although they returned to the country only two weeks ago during a lull in the fighting, a U.N. official said.

They had been trying to help some 200,000 uprooted people who fled to Monrovia to escape the fighting in rural areas.

[Shermy]

But...but...there's been no vote by the Security Council!

[So Cal Rocket]

Maybe we should send some inspectors in first and let them look around... for 12 years.

[DoughtyOne]

Hey Annan, we'll deploy after you get down on your knees, appologize and beg our forgiveness for your actions concerning Iraq, and promise never to act like an ass again when dealing with the US.

We'll be waiting...

[dennisw]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the United States on Monday to deploy troops in turbulent Liberia "before it is too late"...............

WHO ROUSED THIS IDIOT FROM HIS COMA?

[demsux]

"sorry, we're busy..."

[Mears]

Don't we have enough on our plate with Afghanistan and Iraq?

Let someone else solve Liberia's internal problems,what does it have to do with us?

[onedoug]

If Annan and the UN want us in, it must be a trap.

[Sparta]

Hey Kofi, call your buddy Jacques ChIRAQ.

[Billthedrill]

Holy smoke - it's what I get for not paying attention. 10,000 people in the embassy compound? And the rebels are using mortars? And we have all of 70 Marines to defend it? Yow...

Well, Kofi or no Kofi we're in. What a pity the giant street puppets in Europe aren't marching to our aid. That'd larn 'em...

[RightWhale]

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Lead the way, General. You are a General are you not?

[Bon mots]

Suddenly, every tin-pot would be "king of the world" (kofi) looks to Dubya to sort out the problems of the world. Here is a big shot Bush critic begging Dubya to sort out yet another mess in Africa - his own backyard.

Kofi should have been fired after the Rwanda genocide... he did a great job there... or any other catastrophe where he has proved his inefficacy, impotence and incompetence.

[opus86]

(sarcasm warning...)
But what of the international community? Heaven forbid we be seen as some imperialist, arrogant, colonialist nation of cowboys, thumbing our collective nose at the rest of the world! No, no, I think we need some debate, some dialogue, with other esteemed U.N. members, to come to a cohesive, rational response.

[richardtavor]

Bush Check List: UN wants to send troops--smartest thing to do for the US is to pull all troops from area and send them off the continent.

[SpinnerWebb]

</i>And the rebels are using mortars? And we have all of 70 Marines to defend it? </i>

Yeah.... it's a pity we've got them so overmatched with our firepower.

[caisson71]

It's time for the UN to send other countries who consume far more UN resources than they contribite - send Belgium, Germany, France, Russia, China, Cuba, Canada, etc.

[Luke]

This is nuts. We need to deploy our troops to California and Vermont to combat communist first.

[DoughtyOne]

Heh heh heh, your pretty circumspect there. Not that you're wrong mind you. I think you've got a point. On the same day Kofi orders us in to Liberia, he demands the Iraqis be left to implode without a functioning government.

This guy acts more and more like the janitor he was when he started at the UN.

Grab yourself a mop Kofi, at least that's an honorable position to take. It would be your first in many years if you were to take my advice.

[DoughtyOne]

Hey, not too much honesty and reality at one time. You're going to send some folks into shock.

[Billthedrill]

The Marines are only there for embassy security and there's 10,000 friendly bodies on the embassy grounds - they're going to be very hard put to keep the place from degenerating into total chaos much less chase bad guys with mortars. And there's nothing to keep Taylor's boys from lobbing a few if they've a mind to raise some hell. I got a real bad feeleing about this.