Soldiers to patrol capital as Taylor stalls

WEST African peacekeepers were to mount their first patrol of war-ravaged Monrovia as President Charles Taylor appeared to stall for time before going into exile in Nigeria.

Two days after arriving at the west African country's main airport outside of the Liberian capital, the force known as ECOMIL has yet to deploy in the starving city, which has been under rebel siege for two months.

The United States, which has 2,500 Marines on ships off the coast, moved closer to sending troops into the west African country, with plans to dispatch a military liaison team to Monrovia, defence officials said late yesterday.

The team will establish communications between the marine expeditionary force off the coast and the peacekeepers on the ground to prepare for deployment of the Marines, if President George W Bush gives his final approval, officials said in Washington.

Mr Bush is under intense international pressure to intervene in Liberia, as well as from black groups and many congressional Democrats who accuse him of applying double standards to Iraq and the African country, which was founded in the 19th century by freed American slaves.

The international community as well as the rebels see Taylor's departure as a prerequisite to finding a durable end to the civil war, the second to erupt in Liberia in little more than a decade.

But Taylor, who has vowed to step down next Monday and hand over power to Vice President Moses Blah, appears to be playing for time as he seeks to duck prosecution for war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Taylor's government has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to intervene over an indictment for his role in atrocities committed during Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war.

"Liberia contends that the arrest warrant of Charles Taylor violates customary international law and impugns the honour and reputation of the presidency and its sovereignty," an ICJ statement said Wednesday.

Leaders of the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) said that if Taylor tried to remain in the country, even after resigning, they would "fight on until the last man drops".

The fighting in Monrovia has seen hundreds of civilians killed or injured, and more than 250,000 forced to flee their homes for run-down refugee centres.

ECOMIL does not yet have enough men in place to go into the city, although the cheering civilians who chanted "no more war" on the roads in the rebel-held suburb of Via Town were optimistic peace was coming.

ECOMIL commander General Festus Okonkwo said his forces would conduct the first patrol of Monrovia on Wednesday. The force began deploying Monday from Sierra Leone, where the soldiers, all Nigerian, had been serving in a UN peacekeeping force.

"We would have been here earlier but bad weather yesterday disrupted the flights," said ECOMIL spokesman Onyema Kanu.

He said some 450 men had arrived at the airport and half the total expected vanguard force, about 1,500 men, would arrive by the end of the day.

Gen Okwonko, who met on Wednesday with US embassy officials here, is seeking suitable cantonment quarters for the force, military sources said.

"The question of logistics has been the main problem," Mr Kanu said, adding: "Our first mission is to secure and control the airport."

On Tuesday, aid workers and journalists were able for the first time to cross the bridges linking the government-held town centre and the rebel-controlled districts around Monrovia's main seaport. Jordi Raigh, deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) mission, said the reopening of the bridges would allow aid workers to begin supplying previously inaccessible parts of the city.

The UN for its part was preparing to boost an emergency appeal for funding from donors in New York on Wednesday to help the Liberia aid effort.