Liberia says rebels break ceasefire

LIBERIA'S government yesterday said rebels had attacked its forces on two fronts in a breach of a ceasefire agreed last week to end a war that has spilled chaos into West Africa.

The truce has been looking ever more shaky since President Charles Taylor announced last week that he would not go before the end of his mandate in January, which rebels say would violate the ceasefire deal.

Taylor's spokesman said loyalist positions had been attacked late on Saturday by the LURD faction at Klay, some 22 miles north of the capital Monrovia, and by another rebel group known as Model in the southeast.

“These were very heavy attacks and a serious breach of the ceasefire,” Vaani Passawe said.

“We will keep respecting the ceasefire, but we will defend our positions when they are attacked.”

Passawe said Liberia had informed mediators of the regional ECOWAS bloc, who are due to send monitors to verify who is where on the ill-defined front line.

Neither rebel group was immediately available for comment.

Mediators warned on Saturday that there was a danger the truce would unravel.

The ceasefire deal signed on Tuesday called on all sides to immediately start talks to seek a comprehensive peace agreement within 30 days. It said that broader agreement should cover the formation of a transition government without Taylor.

But the Liberian leader, who was indicted by a UN-backed war crimes court for his role in a savage conflict in nearby Sierra Leone, has since said he will not leave before his elected mandate ends in January.

The rebels, who came within three miles of Monrovia this month, say he must leave much sooner than that. They say they are working to make sure a transition government is put in place within the 30-day deadline.

Taylor's fate is seen as key to ending the conflict in Liberia, whose ruthless fighters have spread chaos into neighbouring states.

His aides warn an abrupt departure could trigger more bloodshed, a view shared by many in Liberia.

Taylor won elections in 1997 after a seven-year civil war in which 200,000 people died. LURD took up arms against him in 2000 and now controls, together with another rebel faction, 60% of the country.