Liberia peace talks suspended again

Peace talks on Liberia were again suspended until Wednesday as facilitators continued to work hard to put the agenda back on course.

Diplomatic sources told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the suspension was to enable the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) to have a full team at the talks taking place at Akosombo.

MODEL, which said it had decided not to attend the talks because it was not given adequate time to prepare, now has a delegation in Ghana.

However, their political Leaders based in the US are expected to arrive on Tuesday for the talks.

The talks were suspended on Friday after facilitators met the delegates.

Meanwhile, a two-member delegation, made up of the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Mohamed Ibn Chambas and Foreign Minster Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, is expected to fly to Monrovia on Monday to meet President Charles Taylor to discuss a ceasefire.

The delegation expected to arrive back on Tuesday would also try and make contact with the leaders of the main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), to stop fighting in line with their unilateral declaration of a ceasefire on Friday. Mr Kabineh Janeh, who is leading the LURD delegation at the Akosombo Talks, said the 10-day ceasefire was to allow the peace talks to go on uninterrupted. He told the GNA that the concession was in the interest of peace. Mr Janeh was apparently responding to concerns expressed about renewed fighting in Liberia. General Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Nigerian Head of State, who is the facilitator, Dr Chambas and Nana Akufo Addo, had expressed the concern in separate statements they made at the meeting on Friday.

Mr Janeh said the renewed fighting was provoked by an attack on LURD positions by government forces.

He repeated that LURD would not have anything to do with President Taylor.

"He is an indicted war criminal and has no legitimate voice for Liberians.

"We are prepared to deal with all those at the peace talks as Liberians but not Taylor."

The programme for the peace talks, scheduled to travel for two weeks, was thrown into confusion last Wednesday when the UN War Crimes Tribunal in Sierra Leone made open an indictment of President Taylor.

The Tribunal also issued an arrest warrant for President Taylor and said it had asked the Ghanaian authorities to carry it out.

However, the Ghana government said it had not officially received the warrant and President Taylor was allowed to fly back home.

Since then, facilitators have been struggling to get the talks going.