http://www.news-leader.com/today/081...id-139250.html
August 19, 2003
Warring sides sign peace pact in Liberia
U.S. Marines will be replaced by U.N. peacekeepers by Oct. 1, Bush says.
A U.S. Navy Seal comes ashore Monday on the main beach in Monrovia, Liberia. Fifteen Seals landed to the surprise of the local population.
The Associated Press
By Edward Harris and Kwasi Kpodo
Associated Press
Monrovia, Liberia — Government officials and rebels signed a peace accord Monday to end a three-year insurgency that devastated Liberia, left thousands dead and drove out warlord-president Charles Taylor. "The war is over," declared one rebel leader.
Calm settled into Monrovia as shopkeepers opened for the first time in a month, though many residents and refugees who crowded the capital had little money with which to buy needed food.
President Bush said in Crawford, Texas, that the 200 U.S. Marines sent to Liberia as peacekeepers have a limited mission and will be withdrawn by Oct. 1.
The Marines landed last Thursday, charged with aiding an eventual 3,250-person West African peace force meant to end 14 years of near-constant strife in Liberia.
"Their job is to help secure an airport and a port so food can be off-loaded and the delivery process begun to help people in Monrovia," Bush said in an interview last week with Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in Miramar, Calif. A transcript was released Monday.
"We'll be out of there by October the first," Bush said. "We've got U.N. blue- helmeted troops ready to replace our limited number of troops."
The accord, signed in Accra, Ghana one week after Taylor's flight into exile, calls for a two-year transition government meant to lead Liberia into elections — and out of a vicious war that left parts of virtually every city and town in this West African nation in ruins.
The two rebel movements — Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia — signed, along with representatives of Liberia's post-Taylor government.
"Today is a good day. Today is a happy day. The war is over," Liberians United leader Sekou Conneh declared.
Under Monday's peace deal, rebels and government alike waive any claim on the top posts in the interim government — yielding control to non-combatants for the first stretch of rebuilding.
Linear Mode
