Liberian rebels, govt in talks

2003-06-04 11:03

Accra - Liberian President Charles Taylor and rebels fighting his regime were due to begin peace talks in Ghana on Wednesday to end a four-year war that has rocked west Africa and fuelled a humanitarian crisis.

The belligerents are meeting face to face for the first time in talks brokered by the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and a UN-backed contact group.

The main rebels, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd), and a new group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model, were due to be represented by four-member teams.

The 18 registered political parties in Liberia and civil society groups will also take part in the talks which are being brokered by former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar.

Liberia's latest unrest began in 1999, two years after the end of a seven-year civil war that killed about 250 000 people, and has forced about 300 000 Liberians to flee to neighbouring countries, which have stretched their already meagre resources to take them in.

The talks' opening ceremony will be attended by seven African heads of state - including Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo and South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, who doubles up as the head of the African Union.

Working sessions will take place at Akosombo, east of Accra, with parallel talks in Akuse, near Akosombo, on a ceasefire and proposed peacekeeping force in Liberia.

Taylor ordered the release of all prisoners of war before leaving Monrovia for Accra but said he would not negotiate directly with the rebels.

Taylor was due to attend only the opening ceremony in Accra. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Lewis Brown will head the delegation.

The Liberian leader had rejected a proposal last month by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers to share power with the insurgents to end the war.

Taylor, a warlord in an earlier civil war, came to power after winning elections in 1997, the year that seven-year conflict ended.

He is under UN sanctions for his perceived support to former rebels who plunged neighbouring Sierra Leone into its own decade-long civil war, which officially ended early last year, and trafficking in "blood diamonds".

Both Taylor and the rebels have been accused of flagrant rights abuses including murder, torture, kidnapping, rape and using child fighters. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA