July 17, 2003
Thirty days after securing a fragile ceasefire amongst Liberian warring factions in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, West African mediators were still in the preliminary stages of securing a comprehensive peace agreement. The ceasefire had set a 17 July deadline for the Liberian government, rebels, political parties and civil society groups attending talks in Accra to sign the peace agreement. "We are going to get a peace deal. But whether it will be available by Thursday (17 July), we should cross our fingers and see," talks moderator and former Nigerian head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, told reporters in Accra on Wednesday.
A diplomat following the talks told IRIN on Thursday that a draft peace agreement could be circulated to the parties by the end of this week. The delegates, the diplomat added, were expected to take no more than two weeks to agree to the proposals. "If they don't come to a compromise within two weeks, it will become very expensive to continue the talks," the source said.
Clause 8 of the 17 June ceasefire agreement asked the delegates at the talks to form the framework for a transitional government within 30 days of signing the document. It called for the deployment of an intervention force, the disarmament and demobilization of all warring factions and for humanitarian issues to be addressed within the 30 days. However, as the one month deadline came to pass on Thursday, all the above issues were yet to be concluded. "We are still collecting memoranda from the various groups. We hope that by Thursday, we will put them together to get a comprehensive peace plan," Abubakar earlier told reporters.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Liberian government delegation, Lewis Browne, said all attempts at a lasting and durable solution to the Liberian conflict ought to be couched within the framework of the Liberian constitution. "Our position is that with President Taylor's exit, the reins of government should legitimately be handed over to Vice-President Moses Blah, who would then choose a vice-president from the consensus talks in Accra," Browne told reporters in Accra. "When the mandate of the current administration expires in January 2004, Blah will step down and hand over power to his vice president, who will head the interim administration, until fresh general elections are held in the near future. That is the law, which should be a unifying factor for all of us," Browne added.
He said the government's position was in line with a purported US State department document, which outlines a framework for the formation of a transitional government with particular reference to the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the interim administration.
The document, among others, calls for a President, Vice President and cabinet of the interim administration to be sworn in by August 2, 2003. It states that both chairmen of the two rebel groups, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) would not be eligible for executive positions in the interim administration, though they would be eligible to contest future elections in accordance with the Liberian constitution.
It also calls for internationally organised and supervised elections no later than October 2004 and the inauguration of an elected government of Liberia on January 4, 2005. "We welcome and agree with the general framework of this American document since it goes in line with the Liberian constitution. It keeps the Judiciary intact and we find it easy to work with, subject to some minor modifications," Browne added.
However, both the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and US officials at the talks declined to comment on the document. One Official, when contacted to confirm the authenticity of the document told IRIN: "I do not want to comment on this. This is not a public document. It should not be in the hands of the press."
While the peace talks continue in Accra, ECOWAS sources said, West African military chiefs were scheduled to meet in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on Sunday to discuss the final deployment into Liberia of a vanguard peacekeeping force of about 1,500 troops. Nigeria, which has offered asylum to Taylor, has put two battalions on standby for the deployment. The force could be deployed early next week, diplomatic sources said on Thursday.
Sources said the force would first try to secure the Liberian capital, Monrovia, because a Joint Verification Team that was supposed to verify the locations of the warring factions before the deployment, was still grounded in Sierra Leone.
In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters: "The current plan is that ECOWAS will send in a vanguard force of 1,000 to 1,500 troops. Once they have arrived, President Taylor would leave and the US and other reinforcements would move into Liberia to join the vanguard force." Then, for the longer term a UN peacekeeping force would be established to take over the operations, along the lines of what we are doing in Sierra Leone," Annan said.
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