Adults amputated, more children forced to fight - churches say

The increasing numbers of armed groups in Liberia are forcing more children aged 12-18 to join them and amputating limbs of men, women and children who they suspect to be opposed to their activities, the Church World Service (CWS) reported on Wednesday. "The humanitarian situation is extremely alarming. Because there are no safe corridors, relief (supplies) are unable to reach the affected," Benjamin Lartey, general secretary of the Liberian Council of Churches was quoted as saying by CWS. "People are dying from starvation and diseases. Help is urgently needed to save the lives of thousands." According to CWS, a third fighting group, the Grebo Defense Force (GDF), has emerged in the southeast to fight the Movement for Democracy (MODEL) in River Gee County. The new group, it added, had emerged to the county from rebel incursion. The Christian relief agency urged American Christians to help provide emergency assistance, peace and hope "in a nation battered by more than 13 years of civil war and whose situation seems only to grow more desperate every day." It added: "Civil war broke out in Liberia in 1989 and has never really let go, scattering people and spilling arms across Liberia and into neighboring countries." MODEL, a new group rebel group controls parts of the southeast. They have been invited to proposed peace talks brokered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Ghana on 4 June, along with the government and the main rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). The International Contact Group on Liberia (ICGL) said on Thursday that MODEL had accepted to participate in the talks. The rebels however failed to attend preliminary talks in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, on Monday with the talks facilitator Gen. Abdusalam Abubakar. The LURD delegation to the Freetown talks was headed by its Secretary-General, Joe Gbalah. The ICGL co-chair in Liberia, Ambassador Kwame Amoah Awuo of Ghana, told a news conference that MODEL had written to the ICGL confirming their attendance. He added that MODEL said that based on a US government's recent warning to all fighting groups to ceasefire, they had stopped their advancement towards Buchanan, Liberia's second largest port, 120 km east of the capital, Monrovia. A MODEL press release on Saturday said it..."supports the efforts of the ICGL, the various Liberian political parties, interest groups and international NGOs working for peace and security. [But] our uncompromising condition is that [President Charles] Taylor must resign from the presidency, leave the country and an interim arrangement put in place that will be inclusive, reflecting the geo-political balance of our people". The European Union's Charge d'affaires in Liberia, Geoffrey Ruud, told the reporters that the EU would provide US $300,000 for the talks, due to take place in Akosombo 100 km north of Ghana's capital, Accra, in addition to the $150,000 provided by the UN. LURD confirmed on Monday it would attend the talks. Gbalah also told reporters in Freetown that the rebel group had decided to granted free passage to refugees in the areas they control. "[To] refugees residing in Liberia, we unconditionally grant free passage through all our corridors," he said. The refugees fleeing Liberia for Sierra Leone had accused the LURD of blocking them from crossing the border along the Mano River bridge in the areas of Zimmi and Bo Waterside. The claims followed allegations by Taylor that Sierra Leonean was backing the LURD. High level discussions between authorities in the two countries are ongoing to resolve the suspicions. Gbalah appealed to MODEL to cease hostilities. "While it is true they are on the other side and we are on the other side, they should not see the whole process as a territorial gain," Gbalah said. "They [MODEL] should see the process as relieving the plight of the Liberian people. We are going for Taylor, not for the people." Another NGO, ActionAid, warned in a statement on Wednesday that continuing conflict between the Liberian government and rebels could further destabilise its eastern neighbour Ivory Coast, and reignite rebel activity in Sierra Leone to the west. "Liberia demands the urgent attention of the international community," James Logan, ActionAid’s programme manager in Liberia said. "The pattern is that when there is a crisis in Liberia, trouble flares in other countries of the region. There is no peace in West Africa while there is war in Liberia." Urging greater US involvement, Actionaid said: "What has propelled previous crises in the region to resolution has been the key role played by members of the UN Security Council," Logan added. "The United Kingdom took this role in Sierra Leone, and France has intervened in Ivory Coast. With its historical links to the country, the US has a comparable responsibility for helping to resolve the crisis in Liberia." Meanwhile, Taylor's national security advisor, John Richardson, has said his government has finally accepted to turn over the body of notorious Sierra Leonean warlord, Sam Bokarie after completing "forensic examination" of his remains. Sierra Leone, he said in a radio broadcast, would send a plane to pick up the body. On Tuesday, the defense minister, Daniel Chea, had said Bokarie, a former commander of Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front who was indicted by a special court on charges of crimes against humanity, had been contracted by "some regional countries to destabilise Liberia". These counries, he said, believed Liberia was playing a role in the crisis in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire. Without naming the countries, he said documents and weapons found where Bokarie was killed had provided details.