Can anyone put a fox to guard a chicken house?  Charles Taylor's offer
to mediate in the Sierra Leone crisis is tantamount to doing just that;
knowing full well that the whole concept of a rebel incursion is West
Africa was his brain child.  The article below throws some light on this
problem. By the way, the Mano River Union was set up in 1973 and not
1975 as reported in the article.

Have a nice week-end.

Ben




Taylor To Mediate In Sierra Leone Crisis 

November 11, 1998 
by Tepitapia Sannah 

MONROVIA, Liberia (PANA) Amidst persistent allegations that Liberia is
supporting rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone, President Charles Taylor
has offered to mediate in the war between the rebels and the Free Town
government, press in Monrovia said Wednesday. 

Taylor made the offer during a meeting with outgoing Sierra Leone
ambassador to Liberia, retired Col. Wilfred Kanu. "I am committed to
seeing to it that peace prevails in Sierra Leone, and so (I) would like
to mediate between the different armed groups involved in the fighting,"
Taylor said. 

"Peace can only be restored to Sierra Leone through dialogue and not by
the use of force, and Sierra Leoneans should take on the path of
reconciliation", he told Kanu. 

Commenting on Kanu's earlier statement that relations between Liberia
and Sierra Leone were presently "not cordial", Taylor said: "We are
pursuing diplomatic means to improve our relations." 

In 1991, Taylor's erstwhile National Patriotic Front of Liberia ( NPFL)
militia group supported and assisted the Sierra Leonean dissident,
Corporal Foday Sankor, and his Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels
to wage a gorilla war against the government in Freetown. 

The West African Peace Monitoring Group, Ecomog, which is fighting
alongside traditional Kamajor militia in Sierra Leone against the
combined remnants of RUF and the defunct junta forces, have persistently
accused Liberian soldiers and former fighters of aiding Sierra Leonean
rebels. But authorities here said Liberian ex-combatants fighting in
Sierra Leone were doing so on their own. 

Meanwhile, Taylor is expected to travel to Conakry, Guinea, Thursday, to
attend a one-day Mano River Union (MRU) summit. The MRU is a trade and
economic organ established in 1975 and groups Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone. 




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Copyright © 1998 Panafrican News Agency.