Main rebel group declares end of hostilities in Liberia

The four-year civil war between the Liberian government and the main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) is finally over, the rebel group announced on Wednesday. "The LURD has decided to end all hostilities. We are not prepared to fight anymore," LURD chairman Sekou Conneh told reporters shortly after returning from exile in Guinea on Tuesday night. LURD and another rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), signed a peace agreement with the government on 18 August, but sporadic clashes have continued in the interior of the country since then. Conneh said after arriving in the LURD military headquarters town of Tubmanburg, 60 km north of the capital Monrovia, that even these skirmishes would stop soon. "I came back to assure the Liberian people that the war is over. I am going to pay a confident visit to Monrovia to let the people know that it is time for peace," he said. "I am prepared to meet [interim President] Moses Blah for cordial relationship," said Conneh who was flanked by armed Guinean soldiers. The 42-year-old rebel leader has been based in Guinea for most of the past 13 years and enjoys close links with Guinean President Lansana Conte. Conneh was evasive when asked whether he would participate in a new broad-based transitional government, which is due to take power on 14 October. "That is not important. I am a Liberian, entitled to a job, but that is not my objective. My priority right now is to ensure that Liberian refugees are repatriated back home. Up to 700,000 Liberians could not return home just because of Taylor," he said. Former president Charles Taylor was forced by international pressure to resign and go into exile in Nigeria on 11 August. By then, LURD fighters had seized control of the western suburbs of Monrovia and were threatening to overrun the entire city. Conneh said: "Taylor has gone and our goal to have him out of Liberia has been achieved." A former tax collector and second-hand car dealer, Conneh drove in a motorcade to Tubmanburg through Sierra Leone. LURD officials said he chose this route because the road to Tubmanburg from the Guinean border was in a poor state and virtually impassible. Conneh was received by cheering crowds who danced and ululated to music provided by a military and as he arrived in the small Liberian border town of Bo Waterside. He traveled in a four-wheel drive jeep with darkened windows and a Guinean government license plate. A fleet Guinean government cars formed part of his 14-vehicle convoy. Conneh confirmed that skirmishes between government militias and his forces were still going on in Bong county in central Liberia which was formerly one of Taylor's military strongholds. But he urged the West African peacekeeping force known as ECOMIL to keep the two sides apart. "ECOMIL needs to quickly establish a strong buffer there to avoid those skirmishes from taking place," Conneh said. ECOMIL sent a 3,500 strong force into Liberia to enforce last month's agreement, but this is only deployed in and around Monrovia, lacking the numbers necessary to cover the entire country. Last week, the United Nations Security Council approved the creation of a much larger 15,000-strong peacekeeping force. This will take over from ECOMIL on 1 October and build up to full strength over a period of several months. Recent clashes between LURD and government forces near the strategic town of Gbarnga, 150 km north of Monrovia, sent more than 80,000 displaced people fleeing from camps in nearby Totota. ECOMIL subsequently deployed 700 soldiers from Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria along the main road from Monrovia to Totota, a measure which persuaded most of the frightened civilians. Conneh paid tribute to Guinea, which has supported LURD since the rebel group was founded in April 1999. It currently hosts an estimated 116,000 Liberian refugees. "We worked closely with Guinea and Sierra Leone to bring peace to this country. Guinea played a leading role to make sure peace is attained in Liberia," Conneh said. Dressed in white and referring to himself as a "liberator", Conneh said he had no regrets about launching the war, in which thousands have keen killed, raped and harassed and half a million have been displaced from their homes. The warlord was accompanied to Liberia by several prominent exiles, including, Cheaye Doe, the younger brother former Liberian president Samuel Doe. Doe was captured and killed by rebels in September 1990 in the early stages of the conflict that has devastated Liberia for the past 14 years.