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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (6301)	1/26/2004 8:28:08 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

Liberia Peace Accord Reached; Elections Slated For 2005 Tuesday, August 19, 2003 Two rebel groups and the Liberian government signed a peace agreement yesterday designed to end the country's 14-year civil war and set up a power-sharing interim government as the nation prepares for elections in 2005. The agreement signed in Accra, Ghana, was reached after the warring parties promised not to seek top posts in the interim government, leaving them to noncombatants. The rebel groups and the government will get 12 seats each in the new legislature, while 40 other seats will be held by parties not involved in the fighting. Peace talks began in June, but the departure of Liberian President Charles Taylor last week was generally viewed as a significant factor in achieving stability in West Africa, and particularly in reaching the accord. "The peace agreement is very, very likely to hold," said Brigadier General Joe Wylie, a military adviser to the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy. "Charles Taylor, who has been a contaminant factor ... in politics for the last 14 years, is out of the picture. There is no one there who will be so invincible, so strong, so rich, so arrogant" (Solomon Moore, Chicago Tribune, Aug. 19). In a statement released yesterday in New York, Secretary General Kofi Annan praised the comprehensive peace treaty and called on the international community to support peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts in Liberia. "The United Nations is presently making every effort to assist with the overwhelming humanitarian needs of the country," Annan said (U.N. release, Aug. 18). The rebel groups and the government also signed an agreement in Ghana yesterday facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid to territories under their control by allowing humanitarian workers immediate and secure access. Liberia's Special Representative Jacques Paul Klein oversaw the signing of the agreement. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported some improvements in Monrovia's humanitarian situation over the weekend, as security improved and many of the capital's 450,000 internally displaced people began returning to their homes (U.N. release II, Aug. 18). U.S. Troops To Leave Oct. 1, Bush Says In an interview with Armed Forces Network made public yesterday, U.S. President George W. Bush said the 200 U.S. Marines in Monrovia are expected to leave Oct. 1, when they will be replaced by U.N. peacekeepers. "It's short-term," Bush said of U.S. involvement in Liberia, addressing fears that the U.S. military is overcommitted worldwide, with heavy deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan and smaller numbers elsewhere. "We've got U.N. blue-helmeted troops ready to replace our limited number of troops," he said. Bush also said that the U.S. role in Monrovia will be narrow in scope, focusing on the delivery of humanitarian aid. "Their job is to help secure an airport and a port so food can be offloaded and the delivery process begun to help people in Monrovia," he said (Bill Sammon, Washington Times, Aug. 19). unwire.org