Leaders meet on Liberia
2003-07-23 11:05
Dakar - West African army chiefs met behind closed doors on Tuesday to discuss their response to the growing crisis in Liberia, where hundreds of civilians were killed in a rebel assault on the capital Monrovia.
Although the Economic Community of West African States agreed in principle on July 9 to send 3 000 peacekeepers to Liberia, and to deploy the vanguard within 15 days, the conditions under which the troops would be dispatched had still to be determined.
The executive secretary of Ecowas, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said it would be preferable to wait for a ceasefire before sending in the stabilisation force.
Chambas also said the African forces lacked the logistics to move into Liberia and were waiting for assistance from the United States, which has yet to decide to deploy troops other than the small contingent it has sent to Liberia to defend its embassy.
The military chiefs along with foreign and defense ministers from the 15 Ecowas countries were meeting at a US-organised conference that also brought together officials from the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.
Chambas said the conference would seek "an adequate response and reaction" to the crisis, in which as many as 700 civilians have been killed in recent days.
Nigeria says it has 776 infantry troops ready to send into Liberia, but a spokesperson for the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the fighting must halt before the men are deployed.
Sources at the meeting here said Nigeria had made it clear that it did not want to send in its troops alone.
Guinea Bissau, meanwhile, said it would send 477 of its troops on a human rights awareness course in preparation for their participation in a Liberia mission.
The United Nations office in Bissau said the men would attend seminars about "relations between a peace force and civil society" and rules for the use of force.
A US diplomat attending the Dakar meeting, who asked to remain anonymous, said the United States was "waiting for proposals" from Ecowas.
Chambas said that following the meeting of the military chiefs "we will inform the United States of our needs".