Chea retains defence ministry in new government

Daniel Chea, who served as Defence Minister under disgraced former president Charles Taylor, was confirmed in his post on Thursday by the new broad-based transitional government led by Gyude Bryant. The ebulliant Chea directed Taylor's bush war against two rebel movements which signed a peace deal with the government in August. He was one of two Taylor loyalists to retain their jobs in Bryant's broad-based administration. The other was Health Minister Peter Coleman. Under the terms of the peace deal, Taylor's National Patriotic Party (NPP) and the two rebel movements each have the right to name five ministers in Bryant's 21-member cabinet, which will guide Liberia to fresh elections in 2005. Chea and Coleman were both confirmed in their posts as nominees of the NPP. The other Taylor loyalists nominated to serve in the new cabinet were Christian Herbert, the former labour minister, who becomes Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs, Horatio Dan Morias, the former superintendent of Maryland County in Southeastern Liberia, who becomes Minister of Internal Affairs, and Lenn Eugene Nagbe, a close advisor of Blah, who becomes Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. Taylor's senior battlefront commander, Roland Duo, was named as Assistant Defense Minister for Navy Affairs. These men were among a list of 35 nominees to various government positions submitted to Bryant by the NPP. Taylor, who dragged Liberia through a 14-year civil war, stepped down under international pressure on 11 August and went into exile in Nigeria. His successor Moses Blah kept the same ministerial team in place until he passed the presidential sash to Bryant on Tuesday. Blah himself did not figure on the NPP list. It appears, that like Sekou Conneh, the leader of the main Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement, he will not form part of the new broad-based government. However, Thomas Nimely, the leader of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), the smaller rebel movement, has put his name forward to become foreign minister. He has yet to name MODEL's other nominees to the cabinet. LURD has so far appointed four of its five ministers. These are Kabineh Janneh, its chief negotiator at the peace talks, for Minister of Justice, Luseni Kamara for Finance, Vamba Kanneh for Transport and Lavalla Supuwood, a figure who was close to Charles Taylor, for Labour. A senior LURD source told IRIN on Wednesday that the movement would not release its full list of nominees for government jobs, pending "proper clarification" on the assistant ministerial posts. "We had a meeting with Bryant on Wednesday, where (peace talks facilitator Abdulsalami) Abubakar wanted us to suspend the nominations for assistant ministerial jobs because the transitional government does not have funds. We suspect that Bryant wants to appoint his own assistant ministers," the source said. He added: "Our national chairman Sekou Damate Conneh was dissatisfied over the political arm-twisting in the meeting over the issue of assistant ministerial posts." Conneh told IRIN in Tubmanburg recently: "The issues of deputy and assistant ministerial positions are not clear in the Accra agreement...allocation of those positions must be resolved for all parties to better understand what jobs belong to them." Meanwhile Liberia's new nominated parliament suspended its sitting on Thursday after failing to elect a speaker for the second day running. The 76-member parliament is made up of representatives of the NPP, LURD, MODEL, the unarmed political parties and civil society groups in accordance with the Accra peace agreement. Confusion started on Monday during the parliament's first meeting when General Abubakar rejected the appointment of 15 representatives claiming to represent each of Liberia's 15 Counties, saying they had not been chosen properly. On Thursday, the 15 representatives of the political parties and civil society groups staged a walk-out to protest at the exclusion of the county representatives and Abubakar suspended the session. Many of those who walked out, said they suspected a conspiracy between the 36 representatives of the NPP, LURD and MODEL to hijack the leadership of the new parliament in the absence of the 15 county representatives. But LURD parliamentary leader George Dweh, accused them of "undermining the peace process." The French News agency, AFP meanwhile quoted Nimely as saying that fighting had broken out in the Oriental Timber Company forest in Grand Bassa County in central Liberia between MODEL fighters and forces loyal to Taylor. The incident was the latest in skirmishes that have continued between government forces, LURD and MODEL since the Accra agreement was signed two months ago. The UN special envoy to Liberia, Abou Moussa, said on Thursday he was worried by reports of renewed fighting between LURD and government forces near Gbarnga, 150 km north of Monrovia. On Wednesday, World Food Program temporarily stopped distributing food to internally displaced people in rural Liberia, saying it was still not safe to venture deep inside the war-ravaged country. The UN peacekeeping force known as UNMIL has so far deployed most of its 4,000 troops in and around Monrovia. It will only be able to provide security throughout Liberia once it reaches its full strength of 15,000 in about three months' time. The UN estimates that MODEL has 3,000-5,000 combatants, LURD 7,000-10,000 and the government of Liberia 30,000-40,000. Up to 70 percent of these fighters are estimated to be children under the age of 18.