War-weary Liberians rejoice as peace troops arrive

THE vanguard of a West African force aiming at stopping Liberia’s brutal civil war landed yesterday at an airport on the outskirts of the capital Monrovia, which has been under rebel siege for two months.

Ecstatic locals poured onto the runway by the hundreds, and hoisted a commander to their shoulders, chanting "We want peace!"

Ominously, gunfire could still be heard from the streets of the beleaguered capital just a few miles away.

The task of the deployment, promised to build to 3,250-strong and be followed by a US force: ending 14 years of carnage in the once prosperous nation and overseeing departure of warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor. Flying from neighbouring Sierra Leone in white UN helicopters in driving rain, the first Nigerian troops leapt out in camouflage uniforms and flak jackets, machine guns at the ready. Crouching, soldiers took up defensive positions around the airport.

Excited crowds waited at the edges, waving hand-painted signs proclaiming "Peace at last."

As an armoured personnel carrier with mounted machine gun rolled off one flight, a throng of 200-300 people evaded security and rushed onto the runway. Lifting a commander, Colonel Emeka Onwuama Egbu, to their shoulders, they chanted, "No more war! We want peace."

In the war-ruined capital, Liberians milled on the main road from the airport, eager for any sign of the troops.

"I want to see them with my own eyes," said Bangalu Wonwondor, a former farmer living as a refugee since 1999. "And when I do, even though I have no food, my belly will be big, and I will be happy."

Even as peace troops landed, small-arms fire echoed in the neighbourhoods of tin-roof shacks near Old Bridge, focus of a nearly two months of fighting as rebels try to push from Monrovia's port into the city centre, heart of Taylor's government.

West African military officials said a total of 192 men and 15,000 kilos of equipment arrived yesterday.

Troops were to secure the airport today, moving into the city only as more troops arrive in coming days, commanders said.

"We know everyone is expecting us, and we hope to live up to their expectations," said Colonel Theophilus Tawiah of Ghana, the freshly assembled force's chief of staff. "We are ready. I can assure you of that," said Captain Aliyu Jibril, commander of the first units to arrive.

West African leaders have been promising the force since early June, as rebels were opening sieges on Monrovia that have now killed well over 1,000 people. Fighting has cut off the port and the main water plant, leaving the city of more than 1.3 million residents and refugees wracked by disease and running out of food and water.

On the road to the airport, aid workers were preparing mass graves for the bodies of 70-80 people killed in fighting but left unclaimed at a hospital morgue. Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea greeted the troops on behalf of Mr Taylor's government. "We will do everything as a government to support them in their endeavour," he said.

In Rome, the leader of the insurgent group behind the siege likewise promised co-operation with the foreign troops, and renewed pledges to turn over the port, with its food warehouses, once enough peace troops are on the ground.

Mr Taylor has pledged to cede power on August 11 meeting one demand by fellow African leaders and the United States. However, his government has hedged on Mr Taylor's promise to go into exile in Nigeria.