ECOWAS chairman urges UN to lift Taylor indictment

The chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President John Kufuor of Ghana, has urged the United Nations to consider setting aside the indictment of Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes in order to facilitate a negotiated settlement to Liberia's civil war. "I am not demeaning the role of the UN tribunal, although the indictment almost torpedoed the mediation process," Kufuor told a Security Council mission in the capital, Accra, on Monday. On June 4 Taylor was publicly indicted by a UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone for his part in fuelling that country's 10-year civil war. The charges were announced as the Liberian leader flew to Accra to begin peace talks with two rebel movements. "While we rightly seek to use the rule of law to punish human rights offenders, I urge the UN Security Council to agree with us that we need to tackle immediately Liberia's humanitarian problems first," Kufuor said. The Security Council team, led by Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, is touring West Africa to promote peace and stability in the region, where civil wars in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire threaten to destabilise neighbouring states. Greenstock said in reply to Kufuor's comments that while the Security Council respected the desires of West African leaders to address the needs of the region, it also respected the decision of the war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone. "There is no immunity against those who go against human rights," he stressed. The Liberian peace talks in Accra, which were brokered by ECOWAS, led to a ceasefire agreement on 17 June. That called for the formation of a transitional government within 30 days that would exclude Taylor. But the truce rapidly broke down as Taylor backtracked on an offer to step down and rebels mounted a fresh assault on the capital Monrovia. Fighting died down again after the rebels withdrew from the city last Friday. "The UN should know that there are hidden forces manipulating affairs here," Kufuor said. "Unless the international community helps ECOWAS to stop this manipulation, the conflict situation will always persist." He urged the Security Council to focus on immediate and pressing humanitarian issues arising from the conflict, saying these ought to take precedence over other matters. The Ghanaian president said although ECOWAS foreign ministers were meeting to consider the deployment of an Intervention Force in Liberia, "that decision at best remains shaky if the fighting does not stop and if we do not get the support of the UN and the Security Council." Kufuor said over the weekend that West African leaders were prepared to contribute 5,000 troops to a Liberian peacekeeping force and France had promised to assist with more troops and logistical support. Greenstock refused to be drawn on mounting international pressure for the United States to take the lead in deploying a peacekeeping force to Liberia. He himself has suggested that it would be a good idea since Liberia has strong historical ties with America. "We should think first about the conditions of the Liberians caught up in this conflict," he told reporters after meeting Kuofor. "We remain committed to ECOWAS mediation efforts, a lasting cease-fire in the conflict and the desire to find a democratic political settlement to the Liberian problem." Greenstock said his team was discussing with ECOWAS leaders how to promote peace, security and democracy in three hot spots in West Africa: Guinea Bissau, whose government has postponed parliamentary elections three times this year, Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. His mission, which left Accra for Cote d'Ivoire on Monday afternoon, was due to return to Ghana on Wednesday for further deliberations on the Liberian crisis. Greenstock hinted in Nigeria on Sunday that Liberian rebel leaders, as well as Taylor, should also be excluded from an interim administration that would organise fresh elections. He told reporters after talks with President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja: "We understand that in the transitional period there must be a government which prepares for elections in which none of the current leaders will serve. This is the proposition which I will be pursuing in the name of the international community and ECOWAS in the next few days and weeks." Obasanjo meanwhile hinted that while Nigeria would welcome US financial support for a peacekeeping force in Liberia, Washington should let ECOWAS take the lead in solving the crisis. "We in the sub-region should been encouraged to formulate solutions to our problems, the international community, the UN and the Security Council should support us to implement them," he said. President George W Bush said on Thursday that Taylor should step down to avoid further bloodshed in Liberia. His remarks received a mixed response in Africa.