Leadership forum slated for July

A meeting aimed at bringing together leaders of Liberian political parties, civil society and armed dissidents, as well as key individuals, is due to be held from 8 to 11 July in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, a member of the working group organising the proposed Liberian Leadership Forum told IRIN on Thursday.

There is 95 percent confirmation so far from various groups invited, including the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) dissidents, the head of working group's technical team, Dusty Wolokolie, said. However, he added, "we have received no confirmation from the ruling party as yet".

The Ouagadougou forum, to be hosted by the Burkina Faso government, would follow up a meeting held in March in Abuja, Nigeria, that brought together representatives of various political groups, including the ruling party, he said. He described it as an effort to "save Liberia from the ongoing downward trend" and to improve and restore security in the West African nation, where fighting between LURD dissidents and forces loyal to President Charles Taylor has caused an unknown number of deaths and displaced tens of thousands of people.

Liberia's humanitarian crisis, security, reconciliation and elections would be high on the agenda of the meeting, Wolokolie said, adding: "We have invited representatives of ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] and the Organisation of African Unity as observers."

A source in the office of Liberian opposition leader Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson in Abdijan, Cote d'Ivoire, told IRIN on Thursday: "We have confirmed our commitment to go" to the Ouagadougou meeting. However, he said they had not received any invitation from the government, which is also reported to be planning a national reconciliation conference in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.

The PanAfrican News Agency (PANA) reported Liberia's Agriculture Minister Roland Massaquoi as telling journalists in Monrovia on Monday that the government had agreed in principle to lift a state of emergency imposed in February 2002 to allow exiled Liberian politicians to attend a government-sponsored national reconciliation conference planned for sometime in July.

PANA reported Massaquoi - said to be the chairman of the proposed conference - as saying that a number of exiled Liberians, including opposition politicians, had already been contacted for the meeting which, he said, was aimed at asking Liberians for a way forward. It was not meant to discuss elections in 2003 with leaders of Liberia's 17 political parties, he said, but to give them an opportunity to discuss and resolve national issues.

However, a diplomatic source in Monrovia told IRIN that the recent detention of four people accused of subversive activities [see separate IRIN story titled "LIBERIA: Journalist, three others arrested"] could make the opposition less than willing to attend the planned conference.

"It can give a clear picture to exiled politicians that it is not safe to return to Monrovia," the source said.