Peace talks deadlocked over rebel demand for Taylor to quit

Liberian peace talks in Ghana reached deadlock at the weekend as both rebel movements demanded that President Charles Taylor resign within 10 days of a ceasefire agreement being signed, sources at the peace conference said. Meanwhile, Nigeria announced plans to evacuate more than 4,000 of its nationals from the beleaguered Liberian capital Monrovia. Nigerian embassy officials in Monrovia said a government plane was due to begin shuttling people from Monrovia to Lagos on Sunday. France has already evacuated over 500 foreign nationals from the city by warship , Ghana is using three planes and a naval vessel to repatriate its own citizens who want to leave and a US warship is reported to be on its way to Liberia. Monrovia remained calm on Sunday, five days after rebel fighters withdrew from the western suburbs of the city, but residents said they were afraid of further attacks soon given their latest ultimatum toTaylor to quit. The sources at the peace talks in Akosombo, a lakeside town 100 km north of the capital Accra, said the Liberian government delegation had flatly refused this demand by the rebels, who control about two thirds of Liberia, had demanded that Taylor quit as part of any ceasefire agreement. The delegation, led by Defence Minister Daniel Chea, had responded that Taylor would only consider stepping down once he and other government leaders and senior military commanders had been given international guarantees about their security, they added. Taylor was indicted for war crimes by a UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone last week for his alleged part in fuelling that country's 1991-2001 civil war, which was marked by the arbitrary killing, maiming and rape of tens of thousands of civilians. The conference sources said the Akosombo talks bogged down on Saturday over three new conditions put forward by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement of Democracy For Liberia (MODEL) rebel groups. These stated firstly that Taylor should dissolve his government and step down within ten days of any ceasefire agreement being signed. Secondly, the rebels demanded that a US or Western-led intervention force should be deployed to monitor the ceasefire, rather than a West African peacekeeping force led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is brokering the peace talks in Akosombo. Thirdly, LURD and MODEL demanded that a broad-based government of national unity excluding those who had been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone should be put in place 10 days after the cease-fire. The sources said that LURD, which has been fighting Taylor since 1999 and launched an attack on the capital Monrovia last week, had indicated that it would be honoured to lead the proposed government of national unity. However, it did not insist on this option, they added. ECOWAS mediators, led by former Nigerian head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, adjourned formal discussions following Saturday's impasse, but the sources said negotiations would resume on Monday, with the venue moving from Akosombo to a hotel in Accra. The weekend setback dashed hopes that a ceasefire agreement could be signed soon that would lay the foundations for lasting peace in Liberia. The sparsely populated country of less than three million people has been in a state of civil war for most of the past 14 years. Optimism was running high in Akosombo on Friday when Chea said the government was happy with the draft ceasefire agreement, put forward by West African peace brokers and was prepared to sign the document immediately. "We do not have any problem with the document. It is exact and it is straightforward. But the longer we delay in signing this agreement, there will be more deaths because it is only the cease-fire that will check the fighting from escalating, " he told IRIN then. The defence minister's upbeat mood had been echoed by the rebel camp. Both LURD, which occupies much of northern Liberia, and MODEL, which has captured most of southeastern Liberian since it appeared on the scene three months ago, had indicated that they were close to signing a ceasefire agreement. On Friday, Taylor reinstated his vice-president Moses Blah, a week after he had been sacked and arrested on charges of plotting a coup while Taylor was attending the formal opening of the peace talks in Ghana on June 4. Monrovia radio stations quoted government officials as saying that Blah had confessed his guilt in the conspiracy, but Taylor had forgiven him in a spirit of national reconciliation.