United States military team in Ghana

A United States military team arrived on Thursday in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, and was due to meet officials of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss US support for a West African peacekeeping force in Liberia. A diplomatic source in Accra told IRIN the team would assess the requirements for a proposed initial deployment of 1,000 ECOWAS troops to enforce a fragile ceasefire between government soldiers and rebels in the war-torn country. ECOWAS plans initial deployment in two weeks time, the source added. "They want to see what logistical assistance the US can give," the source said. The team to Accra followed an ongoing assessment in Liberia, where a 32-member team arrived on Monday to review the security and humanitarian situation. Captain Roger Couldron, Navy commander at the US European Command, who is heading the team in Liberia, said upon arrival in the capital, Monrovia, that its purpose was "to assess the security environment and how ships could get in to bring humanitarian assistance to the country." The team has visited several camps for displaced people and an airport near Monrovia. Ahead of the annual summit of the African Union in the Mozambique capital, Maputo, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday discussed the situation in Liberia with various leaders, focusing on transitional arrangements for the peaceful transfer of power and the role of a possible multinational peacekeeping force there. Annan met ECOWAS leaders, including Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, John Kufuor of Ghana and Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone, the Foreign Ministers of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire and former Nigerian leader General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who is facilitating peace talks between Liberian factions in Ghana. He told reporters that ECOWAS had taken up the immediate challenge of deciding on deployment of a peacekeeping force in Liberia with the support of the African Union. He added that he expected the US to support the ECOWAS effort. US President George Bush, who is on a five-nation African tour, said in South Africa on Wednesday, his government would work with the UN and West African countries to help end Liberia's strife. He repeated an earlier demand Liberian President Charles Taylor should leave the country. Taylor told reporters on Sunday he was willing to take up exile in Nigeria. But he declined to say when he would leave the war-ravaged country. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo who spoke at the same news conference in Monrovia, said he was not ready to be "harassed" over Taylor's exit. Among other things, Taylor insists that he cannot leave until peacekeepers arrive in Liberia "to prevent chaos". He also wants an indictment for war crimes issued against him by a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone, for allegedly supporting rebels to commit atrocities during civil war in that country, to be lifted. But the court insists Taylor must face the law. It has vowed to follow him even when he leaves Liberia so as to bring him to book. Meanwhile, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday that clashes were reported at the end of last week, between government soldiers and rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) between Tubmanburg and Klay Junction, 47 km northwest of Monrovia. Wounded soldiers, OCHA said, were brought into the main John F. Kennedy hospital for treatment 3 July from the frontline. The fighting violated a 17 June ceasefire. "Prior to the reported ceasefire violations," OCHA said in an update for 3-9 July, "there were allegations of government troop movements beyond Po River towards Klay." Monrovia's suburbs, the update said, were tense, deserted but quiet in the aftermath of fighting that neared the city's gates in early June. Residents who fled their homes earlier remained apprehensive about returning. Some of those who had returned found their homes vandalised and properties looted. Oxfam, reported on Wednesday that with the current lull in fighting in Monrovia, some of the 15,000 displaced people who had been living in the Samuel Doe sports stadium had started leaving over the past few days. The non-governmental organisation has been trucking 20,000 litres of water to the stadium daily and constructed 10 bath houses for the displaced. It is also building 10 blocks of latrines.