Preparations for talks fine-tuned in Ghana

Ghanaian authorities were fine-tuning preparations to host and provide adequate security for over a hundred participants at peace talks for Liberia which are due to open in the capital, Accra, on Wednesday. Liberian President Charles Taylor was expected in Accra on Tuesday to attend the opening session. Officials said Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and John Kufuor of Ghana would be among leaders attending the session. US Assistant Secretary of State, Walter Kansteiner was also expected. The former Nigerian Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar is the facilitator of the talks. He was named by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which brokered the talks with the UN-backed Contact Group on Liberia. Kufuor, current ECOWAS chairman will moderate talks amongst the government and the main rebel groups. Ghanaian Foreign Minister, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, told reporters in Accra on Monday that apart from the government delegation, four members from each of the two main rebel groups, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) would attend. Others include two members each of Liberia's 18 political parties and members of the civil society. After the opening session, the talks will be conducted on a twin track basis for two weeks. Taylor's representatives and the rebels will discuss a ceasefire agreement at Akosombo, 100 km north of Accra. The other participants will meet in the nearby township of Akuse, 20 km west, to attempt to reach a consensus on the conduct of free and fair elections in Liberia. "We are hopeful for this meeting, otherwise we would not even start," Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said. "It is unacceptable that a nation of 2.5 million people can destabilize a region of 250 million people. This is an opportunity to solve the problem because both parties are willing to talk without preconditions." Meanwhile representatives of six Liberian civil society groups who arrived in Ghana for the talks, told reporters that they would initiate civil disobedience in Liberia should the warring parties fail to compromise during the talks. "Our position is clear....they must return with a message of peace, effect an immediate ceasefire and allow normal governance to return to Liberia," Frederick Baye of the Liberian Patriotic Consciousness Association said. "Anything short of that, in our search for peace, we will start civil disobedience in both government and rebel-held areas that will make Liberia ungovernable." Bobby Livingstone of the Citizen's Action Committee told IRIN: "Monrovia alone has about 65,000 displaced people who live in appalling conditions. This should compel all the warring factions to seek peace and create an enabling environment for peace to return to Liberia." Nathaniel Mcgill of the Students' Progressive Revolutionary Council said: "Peace in Liberia is not who becomes next the President. Today, Taylor might resign but that does not solve the conflict. Lasting peace will only come when all the warring parties truly reconcile first. Then, they must also be prepared to make concessions at the talks." The civil society groups urged the international community especially the US to take a more active role in ending the conflict. "If the international community wants peace in Liberia, they should bring pressure to bear on Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire to stop supplying the rebels. This is a sure guarantee for peace to return to Liberia," they said. The talks are the latest attempt to pacify war-torn Liberia where fighting between the government, LURD and MODEL has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. At least 70 percent of the country is inaccessible to aid workers. The European Union gave some US $352,000 while the United Nations gave $150,000 for the talks.