US: West Africa to lead Liberia peacekeeping

The US has called upon Liberia’s neighbours and the United Nations to take the lead in dealing with the political turmoil in the West African nation.

President George W Bush on Friday ordered US troops into position off the Liberian coast to support the arrival of a West African peacekeeping force.

He stopped short of saying the Americans would participate directly in a peacekeeping mission in Liberia, where rebels are trying to oust President Charles Taylor, a former warlord.

“We are not hanging back from assisting,” Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said.

“We are assisting, and we are taking a responsibility in Liberia that the British have taken in Sierra Leone and the French in the Ivory Coast,” he said.

“But it is very important, if we are going to succeed in dealing with a large number of unstable places in the world, that countries of the region – in this case, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, who have the capability and have expressed the will to do this job – be in the lead and that the UN be in the lead in dealing with the complex political problems of Liberia,” Wolfowitz said.

He added that it is important ”to not have the United States taking on every task in the world, but for us to help other people take on their role.”

Asked if Americans would join forces from West African nations on the ground in Liberia, if need be, Wolfowitz replied: “We will help them to get there.”

He said the US role is to assist the United Nations and West African countries “to stabilise the situation, to avert a humanitarian disaster.

And as part of that, it’s necessary to get Charles Taylor to leave the country and for the UN to begin a political process.”

Yesterday, mortar shells slammed into homes near the rebel-held port in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, killing at least 14 people, aid workers said.

Rebels and government forces battled at key crossings leading toward President Charles Taylor’s downtown stronghold.

Liberia’s US ambassador appealed to insurgents to lift their bloody eight-day siege of Monrovia and withdraw – even as government commanders and residents reported the rebels to be stepping up their drive into the city.

Insurgents overnight somehow bypassed one of three embattled bridges, Stockton Bridge, leading from the rebel-held island port to mainland Monrovia, government field officers said.

Rebels are pressing a two-month campaign to take Monrovia, a cut-off, bloodied, disease-ridden and hungry city of at least 1.3 million residents and refugees.

Their goal is driving out Taylor, a former warlord behind nearly 14 years of ruinous conflict in the once prosperous West African nation.

Taking northern neighbourhoods around Stockton Bridge would give rebels a foothold on the mainland, from which they could battle their way toward encircling government-held downtown.

Heavy fighting also raged at a second span, the Old Bridge, linking the port and downtown.