Liberia: Power-sharing deal imminent, says rebels

Liberian rebels locked in peace talks have said a power-sharing deal could be signed as early as today.

The news boosted the hopes of Liberians who filled churches in the ravaged capital Monrovia yesterday to pray that the West African and American troops there maintained a lasting peace.

The rebels made a key concession at peace talks in Accra, Ghana, speaking of signing a power-sharing accord by today – a week after President Charles Taylor ceded power and went into exile in Nigeria.

The rebels lifted 10 weeks of attacks on the capital on Thursday, allowing food and aid to trickle in after fighting that killed hundreds and left hundreds of thousands starving.

Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, the leading rebel movement, yesterday dropped a demand that it be given one of the highest posts in an interim power-sharing government that will lead Liberia for two years.

West African mediators had threatened to suspend the talks for a month unless rebels gave way on their demands for the post, the vice-chairmanship. Liberia’s post-Taylor government and the country’s second rebel group have already agreed not to seek a top role in the interim government.

“We want to prove to the entire world that this whole thing is not about LURD wanting power,” said George Dweh, a leader of the rebel delegation, in Accra.

“I was not disappointed,” President Moses Blah, who returned from talks on Saturday night without a hoped-for peace deal, told The Associated Press. “The process is on.”

Taylor, a Libyan-trained guerrilla fighter blamed in 14 years of conflict in Liberia, yielded the presidency to Blah, his vice president. West African leaders say Blah himself will hand over power in October to the power-sharing government, meant to see Liberia through elections.

About 1,000 members of a planned 3,250-strong West African peacekeeping force have been deployed to Liberia. About 200 US Marines are billeted at the airport to back up the force if necessary.

Jacques Klein, the United Nations special representative for Liberia, said the UN was giving $50m (€44m) to help pay for demobilising fighters, replacing corrupt security forces and repairing Liberia’s water and electrical systems.

Klein also rejected suggestions that Liberia, once sub-Saharan Africa’s richest nation, be placed under some kind of UN stewardship.

Families living in the abandoned Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Monrovia hauled home some of the 70 tons of corn meal distributed Sunday by the World Food Program.

For Kafa Teah, a 39-year-old father of eight, it was the first food aid since early June. The family, driven from its home by fighting, sold all it had carried for food, then lived off leaves and other foraged food.

“We need not only food, but total peace. They need to stop fighting so we can get back on our feet and work for ourselves – rather than being spoon-fed by others,” said Teah, a Baptist preacher.