August 4, 2003
The first wave of peacekeepers touched down in Liberia's war-torn capital today, raising the hopes of increasingly desperate Monrovians that two months of fierce fighting may soon be over. Authorities said a total of 192 Nigerian troops and 15,000kg of equipment would arrive in Monrovia from neighbouring Sierra Leone today. The advance party's first tasks were to secure the airport and establish a base of operations for the troops to come.
Local residents and refugees bought white T-shirts and gathered white cloths to prepare a welcome for the peacekeepers. It was unclear, however, whether the first contingent of Nigerian troops would even leave the airport. West African leaders have promised a 3,250-strong peacekeeping force in an attempt to end fighting between government troops loyal to the country's president, Charles Taylor, and two rebel groups that control most of the country.
Two months of rebel sieges on Monrovia have killed more than 1,000 civilians and all but severed food and water supplies to the refugee-crowded city of more than 1.3 million people. The leader of one of the rebel groups - Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) - said today that his forces would withdraw once peacekeeping troops have established security. "We are going to work with them. They should be able to provide security for civilians, then we can withdraw," Sekou Conneh told the Associated Press. He indicated that LURD would also hand over Monrovia's port to the peacekeepers.
The first helicopters took off early this morning from an airfield in Sierra Leone, each carrying 20 Nigerian soldiers in combat fatigues on the hour-long flight to Monrovia. They were seen off by Allan Doss, the representative of the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, in Sierra Leone. "I wish you God's speed and well in this historic mission to Liberia. The people of Liberia have suffered a lot, for too long. They need your help," Mr Doss told the troops.
The Nigerians have been deployed from a UN mission in Sierra Leone, where large-scale military intervention by Britain, Guinea and the UN helped end a vicious 10-year civil war. A fixed-wing UN aircraft, borrowed from a separate peace mission in Congo, was flying in to Sierra Leone today to speed up the Liberian deployment, organisers said. Two US warships of an expected deployment of three vessels have also arrived off the Liberia's Atlantic coast to support the peacekeepers. It was unclear whether any of the US troops on board would go ashore.
General Daniel Opande, the commander of the UN force in Sierra Leone, spoke of "the very difficult task to try to bring Liberia back to normalcy". "We shall follow what you have to do, and I am sure you will succeed," Gen Opande told the troops today, drawing three cheers from the soldiers.
Soon after the first two helicopters had taken off, troops loaded the first equipment - an armoured personnel carrier - on to another aircraft. Separate flights also were also planned from another Sierra Leone airfield to help ferry in equipment and supplies. Monrovia's airport is a 45-minute drive on a government-held road from the capital, where fighting has raged daily between Mr Taylor's fighters and the rebels battling to overthrow him. On the road to the airport today, aid workers prepared a mass grave for the bodies of as many as 80 people killed in fighting but left unclaimed at the morgue at Monrovia's main hospital.
Mr Taylor, a former warlord, pledged Saturday to cede power on August 11, meeting one of the demands set by fellow African leaders and the United States. But his government has hedged on his promise to go into exile in Nigeria, and said he would leave the country only when enough peacekeepers are on the ground and when a war-crimes indictment against him is dropped.
Mr Taylor has been promising to yield power since June 4, when a joint UN and Sierra Leone court revealed the war-crimes indictment against him. Mr Taylor is blamed for 14 years of conflict in Liberia that has killed more than 100,000 people. He is also accused of trafficking and arming insurgents across west Africa. The UN security council endorsed the deployment of an multinational force to Liberia on Friday. The deployment is to last two months, and will be followed by UN peacekeepers in October.
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