United Nations hopes for less tension

The United Nations hopes that the arrival in Liberia of rebel commander Sam Bockarie will relieve tension and speed up disarmament, the spokesman for the secretary-general, Fred Eckhard, said on Monday. Over the weekend, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) field commander went to the capital for talks with Liberian President Charles Taylor, Eckhard reported. He added that since RUF leader Foday Sankoh was also in Monrovia, Taylor would be able to mediate between them. Taylor told journalists on Monday that he had been holding discussions with both men for the last few days in an attempt to resolve the rift, news organisations reported. Bockarie, who fled eastern Sierra Leone on Thursday with his family, had been accused of holding up the peace process. He had openly defied Sankoh's calls to disarm and recently accused him of sending a death squad to kill him. Bockarie was also responsible for the abduction of two Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) volunteers in what he said was an attempt to focus the attention of the international community on his dissatisfaction with the peace process.