Foreign ministers review peace process

Foreign ministers of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone arrived in Morocco over the weekend for a meeting to review progress towards ensuring peace in their subregion and to plan a summit of their heads of state, news agencies reported, quoting Liberian roving Ambassador Mohamed Salame. The ministers were Camara Haja Mahawa Mogora, Monie R. Captan and Ahmed Dumbuya Rahmandan respectively. Salame was quoted by AFP as saying on Saturday they would review progress since their presidents met on 27 February in Rabat, the Moroccan capital. Moroccan King Mohammed VI convened that meeting to help mend the relations between Guinea and Liberia, caused by mutual accusations of support to anti-government dissidents. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are members of the Mano River Union, set up in 1970 to promote economic and trade activity. But the union has been moribund because of mutual distrust. Since the Rabat summit, there has been a meeting of the union's Joint Security Commission, as well as justice and interior ministers who met in Freetown, the Sierra Leonean capital. In addition, the Guinean and Liberian defence ministers met recently in Conakry, the Guinean capital. A forum of UN agencies operating in the union's member countries called on them in March to "translate the spirit" of the Rabat summit into "positive momentum for peace in the subregion". The forum, meeting under the umbrella of the UN Inter-Agency Working Group, urged the union members to apply measures to demonstrate their commitment to peace, such as reopening their borders to allow free movement of people.