Nigerian army prepares for deployment

The Nigerian army is putting two battalions with 1,600 troops on standby for possible deployment to war-ravaged Liberia as part of a regional peacekeeping force, the Nigerian army spokesman, Colonel Chukwuemeka Onwuamaegbu, said. President Olusegun Obasanjo, the spokesman added, gave the order last week. "We are working round the clock to ensure they are ready and we're prepared to deploy in under two weeks," he told IRIN on Friday. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) this week said it planned to deploy at least 1,500 troops in Liberia within two weeks to secure a fragile ceasefire brokered by the regional body and protect civilians from further clashes between rebels and troops loyal to embattled President Charles Taylor. Taylor, who has been indicted for war-crimes by a United Nations court in neighbouring Sierra Leone, is under pressure from the rebels and the US government to quit power. On Sunday he accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria. However he said would step down from office and leave the country only after an international force, preferably led by the United States, arrives in Liberia "to prevent chaos". He also insisted that the indictment against him be lifted. The chairman of ECOWAS who is also President of Ghana, John Kufuor, was quoted by Reuters as saying in Maputo, Mozambique that he hoped an initial force from Nigeria, Ghana, Mali and perhaps Senegal would land in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, by about July 20. The force would be followed by more contingents from ECOWAS and perhaps also from South Africa and Morocco, Kufuor said. After Taylor's departure and the deployment of a peacekeeping force, a transitional administration would lead Liberia to elections to be held as soon as October 2004, he added. Kufuor also said Nigeria's offer of asylum for Taylor would not make the Taylor legally untouchable for life. "The impunity principle is an eternal principle. After all, how long did it take the war criminals of World War II to get arrested and prosecuted?" Kufuor said. "If it is found that anybody committed genocide anytime I'm sure that the international legal system could come into operation against such a person," he added.