ECOWAS would continue to support Liberia-Kufuor

Accra, Sept. 11, GNA - ECOWAS Chairman, President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday said the Sub-Regional Organisation and its member states would continue to support the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) to succeed.

"The task ahead of the NTGL would not be easy. It is going to be a trying assignment and ECOWAS would stand by you to succeed for the good of your country", he told Mr Charles Gyude Bryant, Chairman-elect of the NTGL who paid a courtesy call on him at the Castle, Osu.

President Kufuor said, "we look on your country as a sister state, our people have been interacting with each other before our independence. Government and Ghanaians would stand by you and support you to succeed". The ECOWAS Chairman congratulated Mr Bryant on his election to serve the people and usher in the transition period that would be difficult for a nation that had been at war for sometime.

He called on all the factions in the conflict to bury their differences and offer their support and work with Mr Bryant to move the nation ahead for socio-economic development.

Mr Bryant expressed appreciation to President Kufuor and Ghanaians for their hospitality and the efforts to ensure that peace was restored in Liberia.

"We are proud of your efforts and we thank you and Ghanaians for all that you have done for Liberians since the conflict began."

The three Liberian warring factions - Government Of Liberia (GOL), Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and Movement for Democracy in Liberia - on Thursday, August 21 in Accra elected Mr Bryant, 54, a Businessman and Chairman of the Liberia Action Party, to head the NTGL.

The NTGL would take over from a caretaker government under the leadership of President Moses Blah on October 14.

Mr Bryant would preside over the transitional process that would include a general election in October 2005 and the swearing into office of the new government on January 2006.