Government has agreed in principle to send peacekeeping troops to the war-torn Liberia to help restore normality.

Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad confirmed this in Pretoria yesterday.

Ghanaian President John Kufuor on Monday told dignitaries during a ceremony to hand over power by Charles Taylor to his deputy Moses Blah that South Africa had agreed to contribute troops to the west African country.

Deputy minister Pahad said government had to go through various structures such as Cabinet and Parliament and had to tackle other issues such as capacity prior to the expected deployment.

He said President Thabo Mbeki had already indicated that government was willing to assist and would determine the capacity within which it would have to carry out its assistance.

“We have given in principle that we will participate. The date it will be depended on the report from defence minister (Mosiuoa Lekota) to Cabinet,” Pahad said.

He said South African troops were undertaking peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

Already, the Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas), Namibia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and to a lesser extent, the US, have committed troops to Liberia.

“The European Union indicated that they will participate in some form or another,” deputy minister Pahad said.

Speaking at the handing over ceremony in Monrovia, where Taylor officially quit his presidential post, Mbeki said South Africa supported peace efforts in the troubled West African nation. This would include supporting the setting up of a transitional government of national unity, set to take office in October from incumbent President Blah. The move would later lead to inclusive elections in Africa’s oldest nation founded by freed American slaves in 1822.

Wishing Blah well in his new post, President Mbeki said it was ‘shameful’ that Africans had been brutally mowing down each other for such a long time.

He appealed to Africans on and off the continent to support Liberians so they could overcome the violent past and lead “a happy, normal, peaceful and prosperous lives”.

“They deserve that,” he asserted. “…It is the obligations of all of us as Africans on the continent, Africans in the Diaspora…in that it is our common obligation to make sure that we extend this hand of African solidarity to the Liberian people so that they overcome the consequences of this conflict,” said President Mbeki. The diamond-rich nation has been involved in a warfare that erupted more than ten years ago in a power struggle that recently aimed at ousting Taylor.

The fighting escalated last year, when insurgents took over a significant part of the country and staged hit-and-run attacks within 25 km of Monrovia.

In recent days, fighting escalated once more leaving hundreds of civilians dead with rebel forces in control of almost the whole country. Taylor, who has been indicted by the international criminal tribunal for war crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone spanning more than a 14-year period, has been under international pressure especially from the US to vacate office and find exile elsewhere.

At the time, Taylor vowed not to leave until an international force was deployed in his country. –BuaNews.