US military team in Liberia as Bush considers peacekeepers

A US military team flew into Liberia yesterday to look at how best to bring stability to the broken West African country as President Charles Taylor prepares for exile.

The humanitarian survey team touched down in helicopters at the heavily-fortified US embassy in the steamy coastal capital Monrovia, where hundreds were killed in fighting last month. Gun-toting US Marines leapt out in flak jackets and helmets.

The 20-member team is seen as a possible precursor to a larger force, which the United States is considering and Liberians are praying will come in to save them from nearly 14 years of violence.

“We are here to see what we will need to bring with us to provide humanitarian assistance,” said the commander, Captain Roger Coldiron. “I am not here to assess the military situation, but I am here to assess the security situation.”

US President George W Bush, due in Africa today, has not yet decided whether to send peacekeepers to the country founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century. He insists that the first step should be Mr Taylor’s departure.

Besieged by rebels and wanted for war crimes by an international court, Mr Taylor said on Sunday he had accepted an offer of asylum from regional giant Nigeria and just wanted to make sure an international force was in place to prevent chaos.

West African countries have pledged 3,000 troops and want US forces to help them bring that up to 5,000, but Washington well remembers a bloody withdrawal from Somalia 10 years ago after a humanitarian intervention went awry.

The US team that flew in from Europe will get down to work today, visiting camps for tens of thousands of refugees from Liberia’s war. It includes experts in water purification, preventive medicine, construction and logistics.

But Liberians hope for a much larger US military presence.

“What are they waiting for?” growled one man after learning that the team that flew in on Monday were not the longed-for peacekeepers to keep apart the warring factions.

Any bigger operation would be certain to raise questions in the United States given heavy commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan. The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has said Congress should vote on sending any troops to Liberia.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Britain and France all want a leading US role and ministers preparing an agenda for the upcoming African Union summit in Mozambique also piled pressure on the United States.

Liberians want US peacekeepers because they fear that no others will win the necessary respect from fighters often stoked on drugs and drink and with a casual attitude to murder, rape and theft.

The big worry -- as Mr Taylor has pointed out himself -- is that fighters and rebels would run wild if no force was in place by the time he left.

Pressure for Mr Taylor to step down has grown since rebel attacks on Monrovia left 700 dead last month. He is accused of masterminding wars across West Africa, holds barely a third of Liberia and is wanted by Sierra Leone's war crimes court.

He emerged as the dominant faction leader after a war that left 200,000 dead in the 1990s and won an election landslide. Foes from that conflict started a new one three years ago while Liberia was still on its knees.

Although Sierra Leone's war crimes court has vowed to pursue Mr Taylor even if he goes to Nigeria, Obasanjo made clear on Sunday that he would not be pressured.