Peace force drops in on isolated Buchanan

Brigadier-General Kai Farley, center, commander of the Movement for Democracy of Liberia speaks with Lieutenant General Daniel Opande, left, commander of UNAMSIL and Brigadier-General Festus Okonkwo, ECOMIL commander on Friday at his Buchanan headquaters. Opande and Okonkwo visited rebel leaders to facilitate the free passage of relief materials and to solicit the cooperation of the faction with ECOMIL in their peace-keeping operations in the areas. PHOTO: AFP

West African peace force leaders and American diplomats rolled into Liberia's cut-off second city under escort of roaring Harrier attack jets and clattering helicopter gunships, greeted by cheering refugees.

US Ambassador John Blaney, marking the peace force's first sizable entry to Buchanan since Liberia's war ended, presented insurgents still firmly in control of the city with a dog-eared copy of the Aug. 18 peace deal on Friday.

"I'm not your father, but I'm Uncle Sam -- and you need an uncle, right?" Blaney told the red-bereted rebel commander who took the copy. "The United States is here."

"I think you have a very good deal," Blaney added, speaking of the accord.

Buchanan, Liberia's second-largest city and second most vital port after the capital, remains isolated, severed behind front lines, even after a West African peace force helped bring calm to Monrovia.

Civilians ran out of hiding places, singing and dancing, to chase after the lumbering 20-25 vehicle convoy of West African armored vehicles, jeeps and civilian four-by-fours.

Waving, crowds shouted at the Nigerian soldiers, "Thank you!"

American Harrier attack jets and heavy military helicopters clattered back and forth, deafeningly, over the town, deploying from three US warships off Monrovia in a pointed show of military might during the visit.

While about 250 troops of a second African country, Mali, joined a 1,500-strong Nigerian-led peace force on Friday, there was no sign the African peace force had yet build adequate strength to deploy permanently in Buchanan.

Rebels holding the city belong to Liberia's smaller insurgent movement, Movement for Democracy in Liberia.

"We're trapped!" one civilian man shouted repeatedly, saying rebels still blocked residents from crossing the river to the rest of the country.

Those caught included 8,000 people packed into a single, cream-colored, tin-roofed Catholic school compound, their shelter since July 28, when Buchanan fell to rebels.

Telling their stories for the first time, Buchanan's people poured out tales of bodies lying unburied, of hunger, and fear.

"At night they come and pull us out, and carry away our property," David Hill, a truck driver living just outside of town, said of rebels. "If you have money, they take it."

After July 28, corpses "lay in the streets and the dogs ate them. There are bodies in the rivers, so we can't drink the water," Hill said.

Insurgents appeared firm in holding the city against government troops -- but insisted they, too, too wanted the fighting over.

"We want peace. We're ready for peace," said rebel Annie Cooper, with a cowboy hat and AK-47.

She worried for her four children, on the other side of the front line, in Monrovia.

"We're ready to cooperate with anyone. Any hour, any minute," Cooper said.

Rebels signed the peace deal after the Aug. 11 resignation and departure of President Charles Taylor, a former rebel who had plunged Liberia into 14 years of civil war.

Blaney, speaking to the rebel commanders, called the peace deal a "victory ... for all Liberians."

Standing up to make his point, West African force leader Brigadier General Festus Okonkwo drove home the message in the meeting with Buchanan's rebel overlords.

West African leaders have "declared the war is over," Okonkwo said.

"It is over," Okonkwo, tall and imposing in green uniform, said as he tossed new white T-shirts to the rebel with the slogans, "We want peace."