The Hindu : Liberian peace plan under discussion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 17, 2003

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International

Liberian peace plan under discussion

ACCRA (Ghana) JULY 16. Mediators at Liberian peace talks have presented rebel factions with a proposal that would exclude them from top positions in an interim government, rebel leaders, who control most of the country, said on Wednesday. According to a ceasefire deal signed last month, an agreement on a transitional government was to be completed by Thursday.

According to the proposal, one of several under discussion at peace negotiations in Ghana, the two main rebel movements would not be eligible for the offices of President, Vice-President, or Cabinet posts in an interim government.

The Liberian President, Charles Taylor, who has promised to step down, would not have an active role in the interim government.

Meanwhile, In Monrovia Tuesday, relatives of two Deputy Ministers said they were informed that the men had been killed.

The two, Issac Nuhan Vaye, a Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Public Works and John Winpoe Yormie, Deputy Minister of National Security, were arrested on June 5, about the same time Mr. Taylor announced he had uncovered a coup plot.

The draft peace plan, a copy of which Charles Benny, leader of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, showed to The Associated Press, calls for the interim government to be inaugurated by August 2 and for new elections to be held by October 2004.

Elections would be open to all parties.

A new elected government would be expected to be in place by early 2005, the document said.

Mr. Benny said he believed the plan for such an interim government was proposed by major Western countries who have been advising negotiators working to end fighting in their war-torn country.

He said rebel groups were taking the proposal seriously, but had not yet taken a position on it.

The Government of the former warlord-turned-President, who launched Liberia's 1989-96 civil war, is besieged by rebels trying to oust him.

Mr. Taylor was isolated further by a war crimes indictment issued against him last month by an international court in Sierra Leone, where Mr. Taylor supported a brutal rebel movement known for cutting off people's limbs and facial features.

The U.S. President, George W. Bush, said on Monday that any deployment of American troops to Liberia would be limited in size and duration and would depend on Mr. Taylor stepping down and leaving the country.

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