Print

Mail

wiki links

UN OKs troops for Liberian ceasefire

The UN Security Council has cleared the way for a much-delayed multinational force to enforce a ceasefire in Liberia so the West African nation's bloody civil war can be ended and humanitarian aid rushed in.

But Friday's vote in the 15-nation council was marred by three abstentions.

France, Germany and Mexico said they could not support the US-drafted resolution because Washington insisted on language allowing any crimes committed by peacekeepers to be prosecuted only by the peacekeepers' own governments.

With an initial force of Nigerian troops expected to arrive in Liberia tomorrow, the resolution lays the groundwork for an African force as well as US involvement. But it does not spell out what role, if any, American Marines would play.

Asked whether President George W. Bush would deploy on Liberian soil the Marines heading for waters off Liberia, US Ambassador John Negroponte said this was for Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to decide.

"The US will do its part to support this endeavor," Negroponte said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he hoped the vote "implies a new political will, a will that I think has been absent among the international community. But now that this resolution is passed, I hope we will move ahead with urgent and determined action to help the Liberian people."

Annan first asked for the force more than a month ago. In the absence of a response, the war raged on and hundreds died.

The provision that France, Germany and Mexico objected to gave the multinational peacekeepers immunity from prosecution by anyone -- including the new International Criminal Court -- but their own governments.

The Bush administration vehemently opposes the new court.

When asked about the three abstentions, Annan responded, "Frankly, my sentiments are with those countries that abstained."

"The people of Liberia should not have been held hostage to the perverse US position on the rule of law," Richard Dicker of New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

At Britain's suggestion, the resolution gave an exception to the 91 nations that have ratified the statutes of the ICC.

But the three abstainers argued the measure was unnecessary and irrelevant to the Liberia mission. German ambassador Gunter Pleuger and Mexican ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser said it contradicted international law as well as their national laws, which specifically provide for prosecution of offenses committed abroad against one of their citizens.

The resolution says it is critical for Liberian President Charles Taylor, who has been indicted by a Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal, to leave the country for the war to end.

It also makes clear that any US involvement in Liberia will be brief, calling for a UN peacekeeping force to replace the multinational troops by Oct. 1, a date most UN officials believe is too soon to organize and dispatch troops.
This story has been viewed 1834 times.