Mediators: It's too early to agree on peace document

Accra, July 23 GNA - ECOWAS Mediators at the Liberia Peace Talks in Accra said on Wednesday that it is too early to get the major players to agree to a timetable for a Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Sources at the ECOWAS Secretariat told the Ghana News Agency that effort by the Chief Mediator, former Nigerian Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar to get all stakeholders on board to break the stalemate would yield positive results.

The Mediator is having separate closed-door meetings with members of the Liberian National Bar Association, Mano River Women Peace Network, a Non-Governmental Organisation, the Inter-Religious Council of Liberia and Liberians in the Diaspora on Wednesday as part of efforts to reach a consensus over the Comprehensive Peace Pact. Between Wednesday and Saturday all the stakeholders at the Peace Talks, which have dragged on for over a month, would have their turn to share their views with the Mediator on the proposed text for the peace plan.

The parties to the peace plan include the Liberian government, the two rebel groups - Liberians United for Reconciliation and Development (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), 18 political parties and civil society groups. The major differences among the three warring factions over the hierarchy of an interim administration are the sticky issues holding back the transitional process. The 30-day deadline for the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Plan ended last Thursday without the stakeholders agreeing on the text. On Tuesday, the Liberian Women Pressure Groups, which have been picketing the Talks, staged an emotional protest when they shed tears and told the delegates to bury their differences and reach an agreement.

Peace talks to end the bloodshed started in Accra on June 4 and the warring factions signed a Ceasefire Agreement on June 17 that called for a transitional government to fashion a lasting peace. The peace agreement was signed after intensive back-door negotiations and brainstorming. The talks were initially faced by pre-conditions set by LURD and MODEL for President Charles Taylor to step down following his indictment by the UN War Crimes Court in Sierra Leone before they signed the agreement. President Taylor bowed to international pressure and decided to step down and go into exile in Nigeria, but only after the arrival of an international peacekeeping force led by the US.

As Taylor's departure is awaited, stakeholders have been jockeying for positions in the interim government. Meanwhile, ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff would conclude a meeting in Senegal on Wednesday to agree on the timetable for the deployment of a Nigerian-led Vanguard Force of 1,000 to halt the crisis and the carnage that have engulfed the 3.5 million people of Liberia. The crisis has been worsened by the current fighting between the Liberian Armed Forces and LURD rebels for the control of Monrovia, the capital.