Briton released, but thousands still held by MODEL

Western diplomats have evacuated the British manager of a logging company in Liberia, who was among thousands of displaced civilians prevented from leaving the rebel-held city of Buchanan. Last week, John Garrity of Newcastle, his wife and seven Liberians who used to work for him in southeastern Liberia, found their way to a Roman Catholic mission in the rebel-held port city 120 km south of the capital, Monrovia. They were escorted through the frontline to Monrovia on Friday by US ambassador William Blaney and European Union representative Geoffery Rudd on Friday. Relief workers estimate that about 30,000 displaced civilians live in Buchanan, which is held by the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), a rebel group which controls the south and east of the country. Most of them retreated there from Monrovia in June and July when another rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) attacked the capital. But having fled one rebel group, these displaced people then found themselves in the hands of another, since MODEL overan Buchanan at the end of July The majority have been trying to return home since fighting in Monrovia subsided three weeks ago, but MODEL fighters have so far prevented them from leaving. "6,000 civilians living in the Saint Peter Claver Catholic Mission compound are from Monrovia. They want to go back home, but cannot get out," Sister Barbara Brilliant, a senior coordinator of Roman Catholic relief efforts in Liberia, told IRIN. She said the rebels have imposed a strict 6.00pm-7.00am curfew in Buchanan and are registering all civilians living there. Many residents have complained that the MODEL fighters have demanded money to let them go and search for food, which they have then been required to share with the rebels. Garrity told the Catholic missionaries in Buchanan that MODEL had refused to let him leave their territory. Relief workers said the 39-year-old Briton, who looked to be unwell, had pleaded for days with the rebels to let him go. MODEL Commanders told relief workers in Buchanan on Tuesday that their leaders had issued an order prohibiting anybody from leaving the areas under their control without permission. Civilians, they said, were only allowed to move up to 2 km from their homes to tend their fields and gardens. MODEL Commander Folly Jalay told the diplomats who escorted Garrity out of rebel territory on Friday that MODEL would welcome troops of the West African Peacekeeping Mission (ECOMIL) to help pacify the areas its control. The envoys were however surprised to learn that he and other MODEL commanders in Buchanan had not yet read the peace agreemen signed in Accra, Ghana on 18 August. The Commander of ECOMIL, Brigadier General Festus Okonkwo, said his Nigerian-led force, newly strengthened by arrival of Malian, Senegalese and Gambian troops, would begin to deploy in the Buchanan area within a week. Sister Barbara said most of MODEL's fighters were children who would be happy to give up their guns and return to the classroom. "They want ECOMIL (West African peace keeping force) to move in so they can leave the frontline and go back to school," she said. Relief workers who visited Buchanan on Friday told IRIN that local non-governmental organisations were investigating reports that several wells, which are the sole source of water in the town, had been polluted with human remains. MODEL chairman Thomas Nimely has meanwhile promised UN representatives that he will allow humanitarian agencies to operate cross-border into MODEL-held areas of Liberia from Cote d'Ivoire. UN sources said Nimely gave the pledge at a meeting in Abidjan on Thursday. He agreed to a UN proposal that relief supplies should be flown in to the port town of Harper, from where they could be trucked inland to a secondary operations centre in Zwedru, the sources told IRIN. However, Nimely said that before the first flights could go in he would have to brief commanders on the ground. He was expected to do this during a visit to Harper and Zwedru this week. The sources said Nimely also formally agreed to let relief agencies operate freely across the frontline from Monrovia into areas under its control.