Rivals in Liberia's four-year civil war held a second day of peace talks in Ghana yesterday with President Charles Taylor and the rebels fighting his regime displaying few signs of compromise.
Representatives from the government, two rebel groups and 18 Liberian political parties resumed working sessions in the west African-brokered talks in Akosombo, some 100km from Accra.
The talks got under way after Taylor and the main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), agreed in principle on Wednesday to a truce.
The rebels now control most of the country and are on the edges of the capital Monrovia.
The truce is due to be signed by this week, according to negotiators.
President Taylor was indicted last week by the UN Special Court in Sierra Leone for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the decade-long civil war in Liberia's northwestern neighbor, in which some 200,000 people lost their lives.
Taylor, addressing a press conference in Monrovia just before the opening of the peace talks in Ghana to end his country's ruinous civil war, said the charges would have to be scrapped so that the parleys may succeed.
"If this peace process is to succeed, this indictment has to be removed," Taylor, who has been accused of backing former Sierra Leonean rebels in that country's brutal decade-long war, said.
The latest peace talks began last week but were suspended after LURD forces battled their way to the suburbs of Monrovia last Friday.
Thursday's session in a tightly-guarded Akosombo hotel lasted only an hour.
It started with a poem read out by a six-year-old Liberian refugee girl named Lucy Sherman.
"You are killing us with your selfishness and fighting. Please let us have peace," Sherman said.
The chief mediator, former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar, said he needed to discuss some key issues with the rebels and that the talks would resume yesterday morning.
The noises from the rebels were not encouraging.
"We are not prepared to deal with Taylor or his government," said LURD delegate George Dweh in Akosombo. "The man is not honest. We are even prepared to talk and sign an agreement with commanders of the army."
The newly emerged Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) rebel group, active in the south of the impoverished west African country, made similar comments.
"We are not prepared to speak to Taylor or his delegation. The man must leave now," said the group's Tia Slanger.
But Taylor's Defense Minister Daniel Chea, leading the government delegation at the talks, retorted: "It will be nonsense to expect President Taylor to leave Liberia, it is ridiculous to expect the indictment on him to stick."
The rebels' battle with government forces is part of almost uninterrupted civil war that has raged since the early 1990s and that left an estimated 200,000 people dead in a country that was founded in 1847 by slaves freed from America.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS