Peace talks on back burner as battle for Monrovia continues

Liberian peace talks in Ghana were pushed onto the back burner on Wednesday as government and rebel forces continued their battle for the capital Monrovia. The talks hit a crisis on Tuesday when both rebel movements rejected a draft peace agreement put forward by the official mediator, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, that would have denied them the posts of president or vice-president in a transitional government. A diplomatic source at the talks said informal consultations were continuing between the various parties in Accra. Full-scale peace talks would resume on Sunday. The Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD)rebel movement has ignored repeated appeals by the international community to halt its assault on Monrovia, which contravenes a ceasefire agreed on June 17. LURD political advisor Charles Bennie told IRIN by telephone from Accra that LURD forces were continuing to shell Monrovia because government troops counter-attacked as soon as they stopped fighting. "Time and again we have told our fighters to stop fighting. As soon as they lay their weapons, government troops start shooting at them. This happened on Saturday, Sunday and yesterday," he said. "We want a ceasefire, but the government is trying to push us back. Yesterday we stopped our fighters, but government forces immediately launched an attack on us," Bennie said. "As long as the government continues to attack our positions, the fighting will continue." The draft peace agreement, put forward by Abubakar, a former Nigerian head of state, was rejected by LURD and a second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). Both demanded changes that would allow them to play a bigger role in a proposed transitional government that would organise fresh elections. The two rebel movements were expected to put counter-proposals to the peace conference on Sunday. Meanwhile West African military chiefs of staff continued a two-day meeting in the Senegalese capital,Dakar , to discuss the deployment of an international intervention force in Liberia. Nigeria has offered two battalions of troops, but has said it will not deploy them unless there is a ceasefire in place. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is brokering the peace talks in Accra, has proposed sending a total of 5,000 African peacekeepers to Liberian with logistical and financial support from the United States. US President George Bush has offered to send troops into Liberia on a short-term mission to support the deployment of West African peacekeepers, but only once Taylor steps down and leaves the country. Three US naval vessels carrying 4,500 sailors and marines has been put on stand by for possible intervention in Liberia. Taylor has agreed to leave the country to take up an offer of asylum in Nigeria, but only after international peacekeepers arrive in Liberia. He also wants an indictment against him for war crimes by a UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone, to be lifted. The court announced on Wednesday that the Swiss government had frozen US $1.5 million in accounts held by two of Taylor's associates, following its request to the Swiss to block the accounts of Taylor, his relatives and associates. "The investigation by the Special Court into Taylor’s assets is ongoing and not limited to Switzerland," the Court said in a statement. The Court was created through an agreement between the UN and Sierra Leone to try those who bear "the greatest responsibility" for atrocities committed during Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war of 1991-2001. It indicted Taylor in March for supporting rebels who murdered, raped and amputated thousands of civilians during the conflict.