[allAfrica.com]  [Leon_H._Sullivan_Summit]


President Taylor Gives Conditions for Stepping Down

Vanguard (Lagos)
NEWS
June 14, 2003
Posted to the web June 16, 2003
Monrovia
Liberian President Charles Taylor called yesterday for his indictment for war
crimes by a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone to be dropped, to give peace talks
for his war-torn country a chance of succeeding. The demand was yesterday
interpreted to mean that the president would be willing to step down if Taylor
had said at the opening of the peace talks last week that he would be willing
to step down as a sacrifice towards ending crisis in his country.
"If this peace process is to succeed, this indictment has to be removed," he
told a news conference in the capital Monrovia. "I don't know how they'll do
it, but they have to remove it." the decade-long civil war in Liberia's
northwestern neighbour, which cost the lives of some 200,000 people. He was
already under UN sanctions for his alleged support to former Sierra Leonean
rebels and trafficking in the so-called "blood diamonds" mined by them. Taylor
said his indictment by the UN court was "politically motivated. "It is not rica
can be free, he said, adding that this could set an unhealthy precedent.
"Tomorrow it could be Museveni, Kagame, Mugabe, Gbagbo," he said referring to
the leaders of Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast. "They are doing it to
disgrace African leaders." Taylor and the rebel Liberians United for
Reconciliation for Democracy (LURD), which has been fighting him for four years
and last week launched a massive offensive to unseat his government in
Monrovia.
Meanwhile peace talks on Liberia finally got underway Thursday after embattled
President Charles Taylor and rebels besieging Monrovia agreed to a truce which
is expected to be signed this week.
A nervous peace hung over the Liberian capital after the two sides agreed to
stop fighting and accepted in principle the truce which had been proposed by
west African mediators. "We hope that the ceasefire will be signed between now
and Saturday," Ghana's Foreign Minister Addo Akufo-Addo said after holding
talks with Taylor, a former warlord who has been charged with war crimes in
neighbouring Sierra Leone. Talks aimed at ending the civil war were due to
start last week in the Ghanaian town of Akosombo but faltered on news of the
rebel offensive on Monrovia.
In a carefully timed announcement to coincide with Taylor's visit to Ghana last
week, a UN special court indicted him for war crimes and crimes against
humanity committed during the 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone, Liberia's
northwestern neighbour. Following the announcement of the truce, the Ghana
peace talks were due to begin working sessions on Thursday, officials in
Akosombo said. "Both sides have pulled back and it's a good sign that they are
willing to stop fighting," said Mohamed Ibn Chambas, chief mediator and
executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS)
which is brokering the peace efforts with a UN-backed international contact
group. LURD pulled back Wednesday to Saint Paul's bridge, about 12 kilometres
(seven miles) from the heart of Monrovia, after its offensive brought it to
within five kilometres of the city centre. Several government troops, including
Taylor's feared Anti-Terrorist Unit, patrolled the city.

   

  =============================================================================
   Copyright © 2003 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica
                         Global Media (allAfrica.com).
  =============================================================================