Rebel leader ousted by wife

2004-01-21 09:25

Monrovia, Liberia - The wife of the leader of Liberia's most powerful rebel movement announced on Tuesday she was taking charge, ousting a husband whose ambitions she said were endangering the nation's hard-won peace.

In a family feud with West Africa's stability in the balance, Asha Keita-Conneh flatly declared she was the "double boss," of her husband, and of the movement.

Husband Sekou Conneh frantically took to state radio, insisting it was only a marital squabble that was over, leaving him still in charge.

"I put him there. If you open a big business and you put your husband in charge, if you see that things are not going the right way, you set him aside, and straighten things up," Keita-Conneh said.

The marital and militia dispute threatens to destabilise Liberia. The risk is a lasting rift between loyalists of rebel husband and rebel wife, reviving factional fighting.

'This lady can lead'

Divided, fighters weighed their allegiance. "This lady can lead," declared Lieutentant Colonel Mohammed Kanneh at the Conneh compound.

"Women can lead better than men in many ways, but the situation in Lurd (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) is quite different," said Marie Johnson, a resident of Monrovia.

"Sanity needs to be restored to the organisation," the woman said. "This does not auger well for the peace process."

Ghana Ambassador Kwame Amoa-Awua and other diplomats shuttled between camps of husband and wife, hoping "to iron out differences". "Whatever happens in Lurd is of great significance to the peace process, because Lurd is a major actor," Amoa-Awua said.

Keita-Conneh has long been seen as a hidden power behind the rebel movement, with her influence coming from her alleged position as spiritual adviser to President Lansana Conte of neighbouring Guinea.

Conte is alleged to have funded the Lurd uprising in anger at Taylor's armed incursions into his own country.

When the group launched its insurgency in 1999, Keita-Conneh's husband, a little-known former used-car salesman, emerged as the movement's civilian leader.

Conte's regime denies backing Lurd, and Conneh denies his wife is Conte's medium. The Guinea leader and Keita-Conneh are only "very, very, very close," her husband said recently.

It is unclear who holds greater support among the rebels.

"I am chairman, even if there was problem between me and my wife, it has been resolved and I am the chairman," Conneh told state radio.

"I see myself as a mother, a mother of all the factions," said Seita-Conneh.

"Believe me, if I tell the children to bring in their arms, they will bring all, and I will turn them in," she said.

Disputes over policy within the rebel movement had strained the couple's marriage, she said, while her husband's hopes to become Liberia's president had led him to challenge the peace process.

"But you can't force leadership," she said. "Leadership comes from God."

- AP