Liberia asks West Africa to help fight rebels

Rebellion seeks to oust President Taylor

CNN 17.05.2002

YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast (Reuters) -- Liberia asked its West African neighbors on Friday to help fight a long-standing rebellion by dissidents seeking to oust President Charles Taylor, the region's main international body said on Friday.

The head of West Africa's regional economic bloc ECOWAS told reporters that heads of state meeting in Ivory Coast's capital for a summit about an African investment plan known as NEPAD would consider the call on Friday afternoon.

"Liberia made an official request for assistance. We have to discuss this with the heads of state," ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohammed Ibn Chambas told reporters after the opening ceremony. "We hope we'll have an answer, a response today."

There have been sporadic clashes between rebels operating from bases in Guinea and forces loyal to Taylor for nearly two years in the latest cycle of war to hit the diamond-rich triangle of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The rebels accuse former warlord Taylor of destabilizing West Africa -- a charge also leveled by the U.N. Security Council which has blacklisted the Liberian leader and slapped an arms embargo and other sanctions on his administration.

However the Nigerian-dominated ECOWAS has consistently opposed attempts to remove Taylor by force and Chambas said the dissident Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) would not be recognized if they topple Taylor.

"The best solution is dialogue, even with the political opposition," Chambas said. "We don't need this kind of situation to attract investors."

Stamp out conflict

Africa's leaders are striving to attract investment from the West to drag the world's poorest continent out of the economic mire and have developed a plan for economic transformation know as NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

Key to the initiative is stamping out the regional conflicts which the leaders blame for giving Africa a bad reputation and dissuading investors. Part of the plan is to use peer pressure to prevent rogue African nations from stepping out of line.

The presidents of Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal, all keen advocates of NEPAD, were in Yamoussoukro on Friday along with the leaders of Ivory Coast, Mali, Benin and Cape Verde. Liberia was represented by its foreign minister and Taylor's wife.

Guinea, Niger, Togo and Burkina Faso were also represented at the discussions, leaving out just three ECOWAS members: Sierra Leone, Guinea and Gambia. Taylor's wife, Jewel, was asked to leave when the talks turned to the crisis in Liberia.

ECOWAS sent troops to Sierra Leone and Liberia in the early 1990s to help stem civil war. It decided to send a force to the border between Liberia and Guinea over a year ago but the troops' never went because of disputes about their status.

The last major NEPAD summit held in Dakar last month was also overshadowed by attempts to resolve a damaging conflict -- the ongoing struggle between two rival presidents for power in the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar.