Rebels tell civilians to leave western Monrovia suburbs

An uneasy quiet reigned in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, on Tuesday morning, but rebels battling to oust President Charles Taylor, urged civilians to keep away from the western suburbs where fierce fighting has taken place over the past week. Residents in Monrovia told IRIN in Abidjan by telephone that the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement still controlled several western suburbs of Monrovia, including Duala and Virginia, and the strategic Saint Paul's bridge, about 12 km from the city centre . "The LURD are in control of these suburbs and have passed word around to people to keep off these areas," one resident said. Taylor's forces brought in heavy artillery on Monday to try to dislodge the LURD fighters from Duala, but residents said the assault failed. LURD forces had meanwhile moved through swamps to the north of Monrovia to open a new front on the eastern side of the city, they added. Shooting erupted near the eastern suburb of Paynesville on Monday afternoon, but the area was quiet on Tuesday. Ghanaian foreign minister Nana Akuffo-Addo and Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the Secretary General of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), flew into Monrovia on Tuesday for emergency talks with Taylor aimed at securing a ceasefire. They earlier visited Guinea, which according to diplomats, provides strong backing for LURD. Thousands of displaced people meanwhile spent another miserable day in the rainy streets with no food or shelter. At least 1,000 displaced Sierra Leonean refugees gathered at the offices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) asking to be returned to their home country, relief workers said. According to the UNHCR, About 15,000 refugees from Sierra Leone's 1991-2001 civil war still live in Liberia. Foreign embassies and international organisations have already evacuated nearly all their international staff from Monrovia. French embassy officials in Abidjan said 534 evacuees were taken out by military helicopters on Monday to a French warship anchored off the Liberian coast. It was due to arrive in Abidjan in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire on Wednesday. Ghana said it was preparing to send a warship and several planes to pull out its own nationals. Robertsfield international airport was crowded with civilians - especially members of the large Lebanese business community in Liberia - trying to leave the country on charter flights. Almost all scheduled services into Monrovia have been suspended. Stalled peace talks between Taylor and rebels were due to resume in Ghana on Wednesday. The talks, at Akosombo, 100 km north of the capital, Accra, were put on ice by the upsurge in fighting around Monrovia hours after they formally opened on June 4. Ghana and ECOWAS, which are leading efforts to seek a negotiated solution to the civil war in Liberia, have both appealed for a ceasefire before the talks proceed. LURD, which has been fighting to overthrow Taylor since 1999, turned up for the start of the peace talks in Ghana. But a second rebel movement, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) only sent delegates to Akosombo at the weekend. These however are mostly military commanders. Chambas told IRIN during a stopover in Sierra Leone on Monday that two of MODEL's political leaders were expected to arrive from the United States before the peace talks resumed. Chambas said he was very concerned about the escalating fighting in Monrovia. "We are going there personally, Nana Akuffo Addo and myself, to see if we cannot appeal to both sides to halt the fighting, silence the guns, so that the talking can start." The ECOWAS chief said a three-man LURD delegation had traveled with him and Addo to Conakry to make contact with the rebel movement's leadership "both there and back in Monrovia." Chambas added: "All sides should halt hostilities now, so that the Akosombo talks can start...the time has come for Liberians to sit down and solve this problem which has been a source of difficulty especially for countries in the Mano River Union and for West Africa as a whole." With nearly all expatriate relief workers having been evacuated from Liberia, The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) convened a meeting of Liberian national staff of relief agencies in Monrovia on Tuesday to try and respond to the situation. "The meeting is to coordinate the response to the needs of thousands of displaced people sheltering at the Samuel Doe stadium and in the schools," Ali Muktar Farah, the head of OCHA operations in Liberia, told IRIN in Abidjan. At least 5,000 people had taken shelter in the stadium by Monday night, but many more were still coming in, Farah said. Thousands more were sheltering in schools and empty buildings. According to the UN, at least 100,000 people displaced from their homes by the civil war had fled the camps where they were living on the outskirts of Monrovia since 5 June when fighting intensified nearby. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking through his spokesman in New York on Monday, urged all parties in the conflict to protect civilians. The alarming escalation in clashes between rebels and government forces in Liberia, he said, had severely impacted the already-desperate people living in and around Monrovia.