30,000 displaced people living in a stadium

The Liberian capital Monrovia remained quiet on Thursday for the second day running, but relief workers said nearly 50,000 people displaced by a rebel push into the city's western suburbs were living in extremely difficult conditions at a sports stadium and several schools "In all locations, the priority needs are water and sanitation, food, shelter, medical services and protection," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said following an inter-agency assessment. "Reports of diarrhea and measles continue, leading to concern over possible outbreaks of epidemics if the security situation in Monrovia does not improve." The assessment team reported on Wednesday that at least 30,000 people were living in extremely difficult conditions in the Samuel Doe sports stadium, where the government had ordered displaced people to gather. A further 19,000 were concentrated in four school compounds, it added. The executive director of the government Liberian Refugees, Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC), Sam Brown, told IRIN at the stadium that some 20,000 of the displaced had been registered by Thursday. But their needs were overwhelming, he added. Other empty spaces and buildings in Monrovia also teemed with people. But as government and rebel representatives prepared to sit down for a resumption of stalled peace talks in Ghana, the city of one million people was calm and there were no reports of fighting. Following strong international pressure, high-level representatives of the warring factions were due to meet in the Ghanaian town of Akosombo, 100 km north of the capital, Accra, to discuss a formal ceasefire agreement. On Wednesday forces of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group withdrew from Monrovia's western suburbs, which they had occupied a week earlier, and President Charles Taylor told West African peace mediators that he was willing to call an immediate truce. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) told IRIN on Thursday morning from Akosombo, that everything required for a successful take-off of the peace-talks was in place. A second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), which was initially reluctant to attend talks, had finally sent its delegation, he said. "They are all here. We arrived from Monrovia with Liberian Defense Minister Daniel Chea to represent Taylor. The full complement of the MODEL rebels are here including their colleagues from LURD," Chambas said. "The formal opening discussions will focus primarily on reaching a ceasefire agreement amongst all the warring factions in the Liberian conflict. Then we can proceed to other issues," he added. The Liberian peace talks formally opened in Ghana on June 4, but immediately stalled following the eruption of fighting in Monrovia and Taylor's indictment by a UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone for war crimes. Mediators warned that negotiations would only resume if all sides declared an immediate ceasefire and if MODEL, which controls most of southeastern Liberia, joined the talks. Diplomatic sources said ECOWAS, the United Nations, the Ghanaian and United States governments had jointly submitted a draft ceasefire agreement to representatives of all the warring parties to study in advance of the peace talks resuming. Ghanaian Foreign Minister Nana Akufo-Addo said that he was hopeful a ceasefire agreement could be signed on Friday. International pressure for an immediate cessation of hostilities continued as the government and rebel delegations prepared to meet. On Wednesday, the UN Security Council expressed "grave concern at the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Liberia and urged all combatants in the strongest terms to immediately cease hostilities and agree to a ceasefire." Council president Sergey Lavrov of the Russian Federation, said Liberian fighters should "spare the lives and property of innocent civilians, to maintain defensive positions well clear of Monrovia and Buchanan, and to refrain from committing further violations of human rights and international humanitarian law." The non-governmental organisations, ActionAid, Church World Service (CWS), Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group, also called for a ceasefire and the dispatch of an international intervention force to Liberia. Salil Shetty, ActionAid's chief executive, called on the Security Council to extend the mandate of UN peacekeeping forces in neighbouring Sierra Leone to include the protection of civilians in Liberia and delivery of humanitarian assistance. "Liberia is Africa's forgotten war," Shetty said. "If the international community does not intervene, it could become another Rwanda." "ActionAid believes the situation is extremely dangerous for the Liberian population, and for tens of thousands of refugees from neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Inter-ethnic conflict could erupt and there is a real fear of atrocities," Shetty added. "13,000 UN troops are in neighbouring Sierra Leone and could be mobilised to protect civilians in Liberia." CWS said its executive director, John L. McCullough, had written to Walter Kansteiner, the US Under-Secretary for African Affairs, urging Washington to help resolve Liberia's 13-year-old civil war and provide generous humanitarian aid to its increasingly desperate people. In his letter, Cullough urged the US government to "press for deployment of an African stabilisation force to immediately end the looting and killings, participate actively in the International Contact Group in helping find a comprehensive solution to the civil war and set an excellent example to the international community by providing aid both bilaterally and through World Food Program." The International Crisis Group (ICG),a Brussels-based think tank, called for a UN-backed, US-led multinational force to be sent to Liberia. It urged the Security Council to support Sierra Leone's Special Court by telling Taylor to step down from office immediately and appear before the war crimes tribunal. The ICG also called for the creation of a UN mission for Liberia to assist an interim government in a transition to democracy.