LURD rebels call for deployment pf peacekeepers

Accra, July 25, GNA - The main rebel group in Liberia, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Development (LURD), on Friday called for an immediate deployment of a multi-national force to end the carnage in the West African state.

Mr Kabineh Janeh, Spokesman for the rebel group, told a Press Conference in Accra that immediate deployment of the peacekeepers was the only way to end the humanitarian crisis. "The carnage has to stop immediately," he said, while appealing to ECOWAS, African Union, the United Nations and the US in, particular to commit troops for peace-keeping.


LURD last week stepped up its push to take the capital, Monrovia, although they had signed a ceasefire agreement on June 17 with the government and the second rebel group, Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL).


Mr Janeh said LURD was ready to release the Liberian Freeport it captured last week to the peacekeepers to facilitate their operations as well as the flow of humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons.


"There is profound and deep suspicion among Liberians. So far as we do not trust each other, there is the need for international troops." Mr Janeh said LURD would only leave its stronghold in Monrovia if the peacekeepers arrived.


He explained that anytime they withdrew from their positions, President Taylor's forces moved in to kill civilians for their alleged collaboration with rebels.

He said LURD was committed to the June 17 ceasefire agreement. "We have called on our forces for the past 72 hours to stop all military engagements... but when they stop, President Charles Taylor orders the shelling of their positions. "Since (President) Taylor has called on his forces to go from house to house, street by street to fight and our forces are being fired upon, it is difficult for us to ceasefire." Mr Janeh said the latest fighting was the result of an order given by President Taylor to the Armed Forces of Liberia to attack the positions of LURD to create a safe haven for him to travel to Arlthinton to bury his mother.


He said he was optimistic that there would be a breakthrough in negotiations at the ECOWAS-sponsored Peace Talks on Liberia for the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement by all the stakeholders. LURD, he said, had provided a number of proposals to the Chief Mediator at the talks, former Nigerian Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, as a road map for peace. Mr Janeh repeated the entrenched position by LURD for President Taylor to step down and face the UN War Crimes Tribunal in Sierra Leone that has indicted him.


He said LURD welcomed the creation of a similar Tribunal in Liberia adding, "the matter should be on the table for discussion at the Accra Peace Talks."


Mr Janeh also called on the international community to help in disarming, demobilization and reintegration of child soldiers in Liberia. Shortly after the Press conference, Mr Charles Bennie, the Political Advisor of LURD at the peace talks, called another conference to announce the dismissal of Mr Janeh and other delegates to the talks. In a reaction, Mr Janeh told journalists that it was only ECOWAS that could announce their dismissal and he was waiting to hear that directive from the Secretariat. Meanwhile, an ECOWAS source told the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Friday that ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff were considering a number of options to restore peace in Liberia. "The three-and-a-half million people of Liberia must not be abandoned to their fate and I know that a definite decision would be made by the weekend," the source said.