Stop the violence, US government tells Liberians

The US government has expressed concern about an intensification of the civil war in Liberia, where rebels are advancing towards the port of Buchanan as they prepare for peace talks with the government in Ghana on June 4. Relief workers in Monrovia said on Friday that rebel fighters, who captured the timber export ports of Greenville and Harper earlier this month, were now advancing towards Buchanan, Liberia's second largest town, 120 km southeast of the capital. They told IRIN that a large number of displaced people had arrived in Monrovia to escape the rebel advance. Fresh clashes between the rebels and government forces had been reported at Cestos, 53 km southeast of Buchanan, they added. On Thursday Washington urged all armed Liberians to stop their campaigns of violence, spare lives of innocent people and allow access for relief workers to mitigate against growing hunger and disease. "United States calls on all combatants, including the government, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Development (LURD) and Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) to cease their campaigns of violence," the State Department said. "We urge rebel forces to stay clear of major population centers, such as Monrovia and Buchanan, and so avoid creating an even greater humanitarian catastrophe." The US government also urged Liberia's neighbors to stop supporting rebel forces. Diplomats in West Africa say LURD, which controls much of northern Liberia, is backed by Guinea, while MODEL, which has recently made big gains in the southeast, is supported by Cote d'Ivoire. The State Department said: "All Liberians should prepare themselves for reconciliation and cease-fire talks planned for Accra in early June." Representatives of LURD and MODEL were due to arrive in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone on Friday for preparatory talks with Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, a former Nigerian head of state who has been appointed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as facilitator of the peace talks in Akosombo, a town 96 km of the Ghanaian capital Accra. Last week MODEL fighters captured Harper, close to the Ivorian border, sending over 15,000 refugees pouring into Cote d'Ivoire and 3,500 fleeing aboard commandeered freighters to Monrovia and Buchanan. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday said the number of people who had fled across the border to Tabou in western Cote d'Ivoire had risen to 15,000. Some 70 aid workers from various organisations had also arrived in Tabou from Harper, it added. The UNHCR noted that this latest influx of Liberians into Cote d'Ivoire had raised tensions between the refugees and local people. "Its really hard for the Ivorians to accept this new flow of refugees, when they themselves are struggling with a fragile peace process." Anne Dolan, head of the agency's sub-office in Tabou said. Antagonism against the Liberians, UNHCR said, was at its peak in Tabou, where 1,700 refugees were crammed in a transit center meant for 700 people, and in the port of San Pedro further east. Most of the new arrivals had however spread inland into small villages where some of them used to live before fleeing recent fighting in Western Cote d'Ivoire. "With time, their needs will become more pressing," Dolan said. "We [are] waiting for the government's authorisation to build a proper camp in Tabou and extend assistance to refugees scattered in the area." Before the latest fighting there were an estimated 30,000 Liberian refugees living in western Cote d'Ivoire. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Friday it had already started organising the voluntary repatriation of Third Country Nationals who had fled from Harper to Tabou. At least 350 Guineans and 231 Burkinabe had been identified, it said. The IOM had earlier registered 1,038 people in Harper from eight West African countries who were seeking repatriation. But it suspended operations in the Liberian port due to fighting. The organisation said nationals from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Nigeria and Togo would be repatriated overland, while those from Guinea would transported home by ship from the Ivorian port of San Pedro.