Annan calls for end to hostilities in Liberia
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on all the parties involved in the current violent clashes in Liberia to cease hostilities and ensure that civilians are not targeted.
Fighting in the country’s capital Monrovia has intensified over the last few days as rebels close in on the city centre in their campaign against President Charles Taylor. The assault by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) began on Friday.
On Sunday they gave the President, a former warlord, 72 hours to step down but the fighting has continued. Last week, Mr Taylor was indicted for war crimes by a United Nations-backed court in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Mr Annan has expressed strong concern for Monrovia’s one million occupants, thousands of whom have moved to the central and eastern parts of the city to escape the fighting.
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard explained that virtually none of Liberia’s more than three million people, already traumatized by years of war and abject poverty, will be able to receive emergency relief assistance while fighting continues. Food and water are becoming scarce and UNICEF have expressed concern for Liberia’s children caught in the conflict.
‘Mr Annan reminds them that perpetrators of international humanitarian and human rights law violations, which have been far too common in Liberia, will be held accountable for their acts,’ Mr Eckhard stated.
Yesterday French military helicopters flew more than 500 Europeans, Lebanese and United States citizens from the city and Ghana has announced that it is sending a warship and several aircraft to remove its citizens.
A team of West African mediators is going to Monrovia in an effort to agree a ceasefire, and enable stalled peace talks in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, to resume.
