Warring parties formalise demands for more jobs in government

The three warring parties in Liberia have formalised a joint demand for more top jobs in the country's transitional government, pushing aside the nominees of several unarmed political parties and civil society organisations. Their move prompted nine political parties and civil society groups, who would all be big losers from the proposal, to threaten their withdrawal from the broad-based administration led by chairman Gyude Bryant. Those threatening to quit included the United Peoples Party of Bryant's deputy, Wesley Johnson. Earlier this week, the followers of former president Charles Taylor and two rebel groups, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) submitted a joint document to Bryant demanding more deputy minister and assistant minister posts in the government. According to IRIN's calculations, the civilian groups would lose 33 senior government posts to the warring parties if the proposals were implemented. An official within Bryant's office told IRIN on Friday that the document was on the transitional leader's desk and he had not yet acted upon it. Three weeks ago, the warring parties, who signed a peace agreement in August, threatened not take in a UN-supervised disarmament exercise unless their demands for more jobs in government were met. They backed down after Jacques Klein, the UN supremo in Liberia, said categorically there could be no direct linkage between the two issues. However, the three warring parties renewed their demands for more government jobs in a seven page document submitted to Bryant this week entitled "the Monrovia Clarification on the the 18 August 2003 Comprehensive Peace Agreement." The document, a copy of which was made available to IRIN , states that in: "Any ministry, agency or corporation allocated to the warring parties, the other warring parties that do not occupy the highest office in the establishment shall have the first preference to choose the deputy positions." Taylor's followers, LURD and MODEL each have five seats in the 21-member cabinet. In a sop to the unarmed political parties and civil society groups that share the remaining six ministries, they said: " Where there are more than two deputies, all other deputies shall go to political parties and civil society". In the document, the pro-Taylor faction, LURD and MODEL also allocated themselves the deputy ministerial posts at the Ministry of National Security, which is controlled by a civilian. Furthermore, they demanded the right to appoint the directors of the Liberian police force, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. These security organisations were among the 16 autonomous agencies including, the Elections Commission, allocated to civil society and political parties under the Accra peace agreement. Nine of the civilian groups which would stand to lose influence in government if these proposals were implemented, threatened to pull out of the transitional government if Bryant gaves in to the demands. They described the armed factions' joint statement as "a drive to encroach on positions allocated to political parties and civil society in the Accra Agreement." The peace accord, which put an end to 14 years of civil war in Liberia, was mediated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Commenting on the armed factions' latest demands, a West African diplomat in Monrovia, told IRIN: "This document is considered in ECOWAS as a proposition and does not form part of the agreement. It can only be accepted when all of the parties agreed to it, because the comprehensive peace agreement calls for negotiation among the parties especially for allocation of jobs", the source added. The Accra agreement states: "Allocation of ministerial positions, deputy and assistant ministerial positions, headship of autonomous agencies, commissions, public corporations and state-owned enterprises shall be made by the Parties to this Agreement through a process of negotiation."