No diplomatic retaliation against Liberia

A Guinean Foreign Ministry official told IRIN on Wednesday that Conakry would not retaliate for the expulsion of its ambassador in Liberia. “The Embassy of Liberia will continue its normal work,” Djibril Moriba, said. Moribi, who, as chief of staff is the third most senior official in the ministry, added that Liberia had never informed Guinea of the alleged wrong-doing of its ambassador, Baba Soare. Liberian President Charles Taylor closed the border with Sierra Leone at midnight on Monday and ordered the ambassadors of that country and Guinea to leave. Soare and Sierra Leonean Ambassador Salia-Gbao were accused of engaging in “acts incompatible with their status” and given seven days to go. Liberian Information Minister Jonathan Refell told the BBC on Tuesday that Monrovia acted against the diplomats only after being “armed with all the information of the things that they have done”. However, he declined to say what these were. “This has nothing to do with the government or the people of that country of Sierra Leone,” Refell said. Sierra Leone Information Minister Julius Spenser said on the BBC that Freetown would respond to Liberia in kind. In addition, Sierra Leone’s presidential spokesman, Septimus Kaikai, said Taylor’s action created renewed doubts that he really wanted peace in the subregion, ‘Concord Times’, a Freetown newspaper, reported. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are members of the Mano River Union economic grouping. Liberia’s action unfolded the same day Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo visited Guinea in an effort to bridge the rift between Conakry and Monrovia. Both capitals have accused each other of supporting insurgents in cross-border raids.