Major conference underway; government not represented

A conference of Liberian NGOs, politicians, religious leaders, interest groups and rebels began on Monday in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

Organisers said the conference’s aims included setting up a collective, coordinated structure that would “develop, define and promote programmed activities” aimed at restoring peace, democracy and dignity in Liberia.

Participants represent 15 political parties, the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), human rights organisations, the Liberian bar association , the Press Union of Liberia, religious leaders and exiled students.

Issues to be addressed include reconciliation, economic reconstruction, a ceasefire and the humanitarian crisis in the Liberia.

“Our country is in crisis... our crises are many, they range from the moral to the economic and political, to the breakdown of values and institutionalisation of violence as a means of daily living; there is a security crisis,” Amos Sawyer, chairman of the conference, said in his opening statement.

“This is the place where all Liberians who are genuinely committed to peace have to come,” said Sawyer, a former interim president of Liberia. He said he regretted that Liberia’s ruling National Patriotic Party had not attended the meeting although both Burkina Faso’s government and the organisers of the conference confirmed that it had been invited.

Sawyer described Liberia, six years after the end of the 1989-1996 civil war, as a country with “rampant poverty and a rogue economy”. He said war was being waged in one-third of Liberia, while the basic security of ordinary people was at stake in other parts of the country.

The Ouagadougou meeting, also attended by a representative of the Economic Community of West African States, is sponsored by Burkina Faso’s government and funded through the International Republican Institute.

“I would like to simply reaffirm that in Liberia as well as elsewhere, Burkina Faso does not support any individual or party,” said Burkina Faso’s minister of agriculture and water resources, Salif Diallo. ”We are on the side of the Liberian people, of peace, democracy and progress,” he said in the keynote address at the conference.

“As you all know, we contributed to combating the
dictatorship - during late [President] Samuel Doe’s regime - but today we must agree that despite sacrifices made by the
brotherly people of Liberia, the basic issues of democracy and progress are still there,” Diallo added.

Burkina Faso officially admitted in 1994 that it had given
military support to President Charles Taylor, then a warlord. That was years after the international community had accused the authorities in Ouagadougou of being behind Taylor's rebellion.

The Liberian ruling party is not represented at the meeting despite the fact that Burkina Faso sent a high-level delegation to the Liberian capital, Monrovia, at the weekend to convince President Taylor to send a delegation.

A member of the Burkinabe delegation who requested anonymity said Taylor had rejected any idea of a meeting with the LURD rebels, whom he called “bandits”.

“It was in their [the Taylor government’s] interest to be
here,” Diallo said.

The conference marks the first time LURD rebels are attending a meeting with other political leaders.

“We hope this meeting will produce the basis for discussing the issues that have been identified in previous meetings to lead the process forward for peace in the country,” said Counsellor Laveli Suppuwood, head of the Lurd delegation. He refused to elaborate,saying he was waiting for the end of the meeting to make a statement.

The Ouagadougou conference follows a meeting of Liberian
political parties on 28-29 June in the United States at which they called for an “unconditional ceasefire” between government and LURD.

They also called for the deployment of an international
intervention force similar to that of Sierra Leone.