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ECOWAS Summit Asks For U.N. Approval
ABUJA, April 11 (News Agencies) - West African leaders on Wednesday called on the U.N. Security Council to approve and support the deployment of regional forces to a conflict zone at the common borders of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
In a communiqué released after crisis talks in the Nigerian capital, nine west African heads of state said the forces were needed all along the three countries' shared borders, where a bloody insurgency has endangered hundreds of thousands of refugees and civilians since last September.
Taylor, who is widely accused of fomenting the crisis by lending support to Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF), was the only head of state from the three countries to attend the summit of the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah made a surprise appearance at the venue after talks had ended and most participants had left.
Kabbah, who like his Guinean counterpart Lansana Conte, has vowed not to negotiate with Taylor and sent his foreign minister to the summit, and spoke briefly with Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo before leaving the ECOWAS secretariat, the summit venue.
Taylor agreed at the summit to rescind his order last month to expel the Guinean and Sierra Leonean ambassadors from Monrovia.
Liberia had declared the envoys personae non grata for acts "incompatible with their diplomatic status" and given them a week to leave the country.
Guinea blames RUF forces backed by Taylor of operating on its side of the border alongside other insurgents.
Monrovia, which is under a U.N. arms embargo and faces further sanctions, denies the allegations against it while accusing Guinea of sheltering anti-Taylor rebels.
About 150,000 refugees are feared trapped in the fighting in what has been termed the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The communiqué, calling for the deployment of ECOMOG troops to the region, also called on the three countries to take steps to halt armed attacks from their territory and to enable the reopening of the embattled borders.
Regional leaders had previously agreed to deploy some 1,700 troops in the troubled border area, but the soldiers have not moved in. ECOWAS has cited logistical problems, but Malian army sources have spoken of the risks of a powderkeg.
The West African leaders also urged the setting up of security corridors to protect the refugees from attacks by insurgents in the region as well as facilitate their repatriation to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The communiqué called on the three countries concerned to take steps to guarantee the safety of refugees, and asked the U.N. refugee agency to improve humanitarian conditions in the region.
Heads of state present in Abuja also included Mathieu Kerekou of Benin, Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast, John Kufour of Ghana, Alpha Omar Konare of Mali, Mamadou Tandja of Niger and Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo.
Guinean President Conte said late last month that he was open to talks with his regional counterparts but would "never negotiate with people who kill my compatriots or have a Guinean killed."
A West African diplomat said Kabbah was "boycotting the meeting" to "bow to popular feeling that it was pointless for him to attend, given the stubbornness of Charles Taylor in his attitude towards the rebel war."
He said Kabbah's abstention could also be linked with the recent expulsion from Monrovia of the Guinean and Sierra Leonean ambassadors.
Last week, Kabbah and Conte signed a communiqué in Conakry agreeing to deal with each other alone "until Liberia gets a serious president".
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