Liberians are going back home, hoping for a better tomorrow

MONROVIA, August 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A week after the forced exit of former president Charles Taylor, Liberia’s government and rebel groups signed a peace deal Monday, August 18, sparking hopes for an end to years of brutal civil war.

The agreement, signed in Ghana, spelt out the contours of a power-sharing administration, due to take charge in October and pave the way for democratic elections held no later than 2005.

The factions could begin naming members of the transitional administration as soon as Tuesday, according to negotiators at the talks in Ghana.

The leader and number two of the new government will be selected from a list of candidates proposed by political parties and civil groups.

Neither of the two top positions - those of chairman and vice-chairman - will go to the current government or the two rebel groups, Lurd and Model.

The transitional cabinet and parliament will be divided between representatives of the current government, the rebels, political parties and civil society.

Mediators from the regional grouping that brokered the deal Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said that the departure of Taylor - who was at the centre of two savage wars that raged almost non-stop for 14 years - made chances of peace more of a reality than ever.

"I believe this definitely buries the war. Charles Taylor has departed: the major reason why these groups have been fighting has been removed," said ECOWAS executive secretary Mohamed ibn Chambas.

Ibn Chambas was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying that he hoped the pact would "bring lasting peace as (it) addresses major issues. It works to improve human rights, improve the rights of citizens and contains important reforms in security and electoral reforms."

Former Nigerian president General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the chief mediator in peace talks, echoed him.

"There were those who said Charles Taylor was the problem. Now he is gone. Let no one else be the next problem," he said.

However, with Model still in control of Liberia's second city, Buchanan, and the West African peacekeepers thin on the ground, the deal is being welcomed with caution.

In Monrovia, there is cautious optimism about the agreement - and hope that it will bring sporadic fighting to an end, the BBC NewsOnline reported.

In Washington, a White House spokesman said the deal provided Liberians with "an unprecedented opportunity to begin the process of healing and reconciliation toward a peaceful, stable and prosperous Liberia".

Investigating Past Violations

The pact calls on the United Nations to deploy a stabilization force in conjunction with ECOWAS and the African Union under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which allows use of force, to back the proposed transition government.

It also provides for the setting up of a national human rights agency and a truth and reconciliation commission to look into past rights violations.

International groups have accused both Taylor's erstwhile government and the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) main rebel group of sweeping violations including torture, rape, killings and using child fighters.

‘Fresh Start’

Kabineh Ja'neh, who led the LURD at the peace talks in Ghana, heralded the pact as a fresh start, saying: "We look forward to a great future."

But in order to be truly successful, some key points of the pact need to be adhered to strictly - including disarming and demilitarization and the restructuring of the army to ensure parity along ethnic lines.

As in other parts of Africa, Liberia is divided along ethnic lines and so are the various rebel groups and factions which have played a role in the two wars.

Liberian Defense Minister Daniel Chea has meanwhile said that a west African peacekeeping force - whose total strength will be between 3,000 and 5,000 - is woefully inadequate to act as a buffer force.

Chea had said Liberia needs about 15,000 peacekeepers. The problem is funding and such a force will cost a lot.

Although the United States has sent 200 extra troops as a back-up force to the ECOMIL peacekeepers, Washington's line has still been that its military role in Liberia will be limited in nature.

Immediately after the signing of Monday's pact, President George W. Bush said the 200 troops will "be out of there by October 1.

"We've got U.N. blue-helmeted troops ready to replace our limited number of troops," Bush said.

Bush said that current force, which includes a 150-strong rapid reaction contingent, would fulfill a "short-term" mission, shoring up a West African peacekeeping force dubbed ECOMIL.

"Their job is to help secure an airport and a port so food can be offloaded and the delivery process begun to help people in Monrovia," Bush said in an interview.

"We will have a limited mission, of limited duration and limited scope and that we will help what's called ECOMIL, which is the Western African nations' militaries, go in and provide the conditions necessary for humanitarian aid to move."

Liberia is still also grappled with mounting economic problems to be faced by Liberia’s new government.

Humanitarian aid is still desperately needed in Monrovia and across the country, where hundreds of thousands of people have fled the fighting.

According to the United Nations, Liberia’s unemployment rate is a record 80 percent or higher, and 76 percent of the estimated 3.3 million people live below the poverty line on less than one dollar a day.

There are 450,000 displaced people living in Monrovia amid a crippling shortage of food, water and medicines.

And despite its rich reserves of minerals and timber, Liberia’s economy had been further battered by a slew of U.N. sanctions imposed on Taylor's regime in 2001 for his perceived support to erstwhile rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone.