FREE DAILY EMAIL

West African envoys arrived here yesterday to press Liberian President Charles Taylor to step down and go into exile in Nigeria, as a new mortar attack hit the war-wracked capital.

The delegation of foreign ministers was led by Mohamed ibn Chambas, the executive secretary of the Ecowas regional bloc, which has told Taylor he must leave after a peacekeeping force has fully deployed in the country.

A vanguard of up to 1 500 Nigerian soldiers is due to begin arriving by Monday ahead of 2 000 more soldiers in the regional force, which will be tasked with enforcing a ceasefire between government forces and rebels seeking to overthrow Taylor.

The rebels, who rose up against Taylor nearly five years ago and now control four-fifths of the country, have been trying to take Monrovia for the last two months.

Mortar shells landed yesterday in the city centre, shattering a brief lull in fighting. Up to six shells hit the diplomatic district of Mamba Point and light artillery fire could be heard from the area.

Taylor, an indicted war crimes suspect, has been told to hand over power in the three days that follow the deployment of the full peacekeeping force, which is likely to take several weeks.

The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) told the former warlord to head for Nigeria, which has offered to take him in.

But Taylor's spokesperson Vanii Paassewe said the beleaguered leader will "not necessarily" abide by the ultimatum, suggesting that much wrangling lay ahead for the envoys to finalise a deal.

"Any political arrangement that will take place in Liberia, will depend on the negotiations in Accra," the Ghanaian capital where faltering peace talks between the warring parties are ongoing, he said.

A nine-man reconnaissance team led by a Nigerian general were given a hero's welcome on Thursday as they arrived in Monrovia to plan for the deployment of the peace force, with scores of cheering Liberians lining the streets as their motorcade drove by.

"There is going to be peace in Liberia as soon as possible," General Festus Okonkwo told reporters as his team toured sites around the capital.

As he led the team yesterday to visit the airport, Taylor's gun-toting soldiers and militiamen filed into the streets, singing.

"We are tired of fighting, we want peace!" Led by Nigeria, the peacekeeping force will include troops from Ghana, Mali, Benin and Togo and its deployment is expected to take three weeks.

General Okwonko said that the first of the peacekeepers to arrive would secure the city's airport, adding that "the success of the whole operation depends on this".

"The next troops that come will initially be based in Camp Shiefflin and then move into town," he said.

The camp is near the airport in eastern Monrovia.

The US has pledged to provide financial backing for the Ecowas force, removing one of the biggest obstacles to deployment, and it has introduced a UN Security Council resolution to authorise the deployment of a separate multinational peacekeeping force to Liberia.

Hundreds of civilians have died in Monrovia and over 200 000 have been displaced in the recent upsurge of fighting.

Liberia, founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century, has for three decades witnessed the violent overthrow of successive regimes and the rise of brutal warlords to power in the country of 3,3-million.

As a former warlord, Taylor unleashed one of Africa's most savage civil wars in 1989 against former president Samuel Doe, which lasted for seven years and killed some 250 000 people.

Taylor is accused of backing rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone, who were notorious for recruiting child soldiers and hacking off people's limbs in a war which raged from 1991 until January 2002 and claimed up to 200 000 lives.

A year after Taylor's election in 1997, the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) took up arms against Taylor, plunging Liberia into war yet again.

Who will follow Taylor if he takes asylum in Nigeria remains an open question.

The president has tapped as potential successors either his vice president, Moses Blah, or the president of the national assembly, Nyundueh Morkonma.

But rebels have not given their backing to either. – Sapa-AFP.

SPONSORED BY

Advanced