Thousands on the run again as fighting nears Monrovia

Intense fighting between government and rebels forces neared the western outskirts of the Liberian capital Monrovia on Tuesday, sending thousands of displaced people who had just returned to their homes in the suburbs, fleeing back to the city centre. It appeared that a ceasefire agreed in Ghana on June 17 was in danger of breaking down completely and that rebels were preparing for a fresh push into the capital following their five-day incursion into its western suburbs earlier this month. Military sources told IRIN that fighting between government soldiers and rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group had been concentrated around the Po river, 17 km west of Monrovia since Tuesday morning. The LURD had taken Kley junction, 18 km further west, on Monday and had advanced towards Monrovia, the sources added. Fleeing residents said the sound of heavy bombardment could be heard throughout the morning in the western city suburbs of Duala, Brewersville and Caldwell. Government troops prevented civilians from going beyond the St. Paul bridge, which separates Monrovia's outskirts from its western suburbs. Heavily armed militias sped in open trucks towards the frontline. By afternoon, panic was seizing the city centre. Shop owners started closing their premises. Many of the cars on the streets were heavily loaded with the mattresses and chairs of people abandoning their homes. Lines of people walked along the main roads to the city centre from the suburbs and nearby camps, with bundles of belongings on their heads. They said they feared that rebels who entered Monrovia two weeks ago but withdrew following last week's ceasefire agreement, would attack again. Many were abandoning their homes for the second time this month. They included a large number of the 100,000 displaced people living in camps on the edge of Monrovia who fled the first rebel incursion into Monrovia less than three weeks ago, to seek temporary refuge in the city centre. They had just returned to their homes following the ceasefire negotiated at peace talks in Accra. Liberian government military sources also reported fighting with rebels of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) at Tapeta on Tuesday, in the northern Nimba County and at Ganta, a key crossroads town on the Guinean border 60 km away. However, the sources said the government had retained control of Ganta, which in the past has been occupied by LURD. It took journalists by road to visit the town on Monday. Peace talks between the government and rebels in Accra, which began on June 4, have once again been stalled by this latest upsurge in fighting. A diplomatic source in the Ghanaian capital said the LURD delegation threatened to pull out entirely on Monday, accusing President Charles Taylor of circumventing the ceasefire. LURD also claimed that one of the mediators, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), was biased in Taylor's favour. However, the source said that following the intervention of the talks facilitator, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, a former Nigerian head of state, separate meetings between LURD, MODEL and various Liberian political parties represented at the peace conference, continued on Tuesday. The diplomat told IRIN, that LURD had failed to submit a position paper on political issues by Tuesday, two days after the original deadline on Sunday and this was delaying the talks. The government and MODEL had submitted their papers, they added. "The LURD demanded that ECOWAS transport two of the delegates to Voinjama [in northern Liberia] to consult their leaders, but this is not possible," the source said. He added that LURD and the government had yet to name their representatives to an ECOWAS-led Joint Verification Team (JVT), that should have traveled to Monrovia last Saturday to begin the task of charting the agreed ceasefire positions of the warring parties. MODEL had named its own representatives to this body, he added. The JVT, which will include two representatives each from the warring factions and others from the UN, the African Union and the International Contact Group on Liberia, is expected to collect information on locations of fighting units, their combat equipment and visit the locations to plot them on a map. Meanwhile the conditions of displaced people living in central Monrovia remained precarious. World Vision, which has distributed food to 9,424 displaced people and immunized 3,934 children in recent days, said on Tuesday that 23 people had died of disease and hunger since the fighting resumed. These included 17 people, who died in the Samuel Doe sports stadium. However the number of people seeking shelter there had fallen from a peak of around 60,000 to 17,402, it added.