MODEL to boycott Liberia's Peace Agreement

Accra, Aug.5, GNA - The Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) on Tuesday threatened not to endorse the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to restore normalcy to war-wrecked Liberia if President Charles Taylor continued to attack its positions.

MODEL, one of the belligerent groups that signed a Ceasefire Agreement at the ECOWAS-mediated Peace Talks in Accra on June 17, accused the Sub-Regional body of looking on while President Taylor flouted the agreement to halt all military hostilities.

Mr Tiah Slanger, Chairman of the MODEL Delegation to the Accra Talks, told a Press Conference that the Liberian Armed Forces launched an assault on the three positions of the Movement at 0400 (GMT) on Tuesday at Grand Bassa County where the embattled Buchanan Port City is situated.

He said ECOWAS had not been sanctioning President Taylor anytime he ordered an attack on rebel positions, adding: "Taylor has passed the ST. Johns Bridge and fighting his way to Buchanan.

"We want to see plans by ECOWAS to contain President Taylor. Either ECOWAS contain him or we are allowed to contain him." Mr Slanger, who was flanked by General Boi Bleaju Boi, MODEl's Military Spokesman, said President Taylor's position on leaving Liberia for exile after stepping down remained ambiguous and called on ECOWAS for clarification.

"Taylor's insistence that the indictment by the UN War Crimes Tribunal be dropped is also mind-boggling."

Mr Slanger welcomed the deployment of the ECOWAS Mission in Liberia (ECOMIL) but rescinded an earlier position by MODEL to give the Peace Keeping Force Free access to the Buchanan Port that is under its control.

He said the Movement was not prepared to vacate the port for the peacekeepers and explained: "You do not come to someone's house and ask him to leave...we are ready to share the Port with them."

Mr Slanger accused President Taylor of planning to disrupt the unimpeded deployment of ECOMIL by dressing men from the Liberian Army in MODEL Uniform to attack the peacekeepers.

General Boi said the Liberian Army had launched unprovoked attack on MODEL positions since July 23 hence the decision by the Movement to go all out to defend itself.

In a related development the Liberia main rebel group- Liberians United for Reconciliation and Development (LURD) has promised to give ECOMIL free access to the Freeport of the capital, Monrovia to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to people displaced by the war.

A Press Statement issued by the group also accused President Taylor of making T-shirts with LURD inscriptions to be worn by people that intend to attack the peacekeepers.

"We also have information that Mr Taylor is still very much bent on fighting to get back the Port area of Monrovia before the ECOWAS Vanguard Interposition Force, now landing in Monrovia, fully establishes itself around the city.

"We urge ECOWAS and the international community to take due notice of these concerns... because we believe that timely prevention of any such moves by the Taylor's government will save vulnerable civilian lives and enhance the atmosphere for even more peace-building concessions by the LURD Leadership."

Meanwhile ECOWAS Mediators would resume closed doors meeting in Accra on Wednesday to try to clinch a Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Liberia.

The peace agreement is a component of the June 17 Ceasefire Agreement to initiate a transitional process that called for the formation of an interim government for Liberia.

Renewed fighting among the Liberian government and the two rebel groups and major differences over the hierarchy of the interim administration overshadowed the Agreement that should have been signed on July 17 by the stakeholders.

The major players expected to sign the Comprehensive Peace Agreement include the three warring factions, the 18 political parties and civil society groups. The endorsement of the plan would wrap-up two months of peace talks being facilitated by former Nigerian Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar. ATTENTION RECIPIENTS: ITEM, 05 ENDS OUR THIRD TRANSMISSION