Rawlings says Ghana getting tired of solving conflicts

Accra - President Jerry Rawlings said on Monday that Ghana, which has been active in conflict resolution in West Africa, is getting tired of having to take up other people's problems and might be unwilling to get involved in sierra Leone should fighting flare up again.

"Who is going to fight? We do not want to engage in any fighting and who is going to finance the fighting", he said when the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group called on him.

The eight-member group, formed after the Commonwealth Summit in Harare, is tasked to monitor observance of human rights, democracy and rule of law in former British colonies which constitute the commonwealth.

The group is on its way to Sierra Leone to express the Commonwealth's solidarity with President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and to determine the level of commonwealth assistance to the West African country.

President Kabbah was ousted by the military and stayed in exile for nine months ago but was restored to power last month by the Liberia-based West African Peace Monitoring Group, ECOMOG, led by Nigeria.

President Rawlings appealed for international assistance for Sierra Leone to stabilize the government and called on President Kabbah to "open the door for reconciliation" for other groups in the country to "consolidate his return".

He said what happened in Sierra Leone could have been avoided if the international community had accepted Ghana and Ivory Coast's proposal that peace should be restored in Sierra Leone before general elections.

The elections went ahead as rebels of the Revolutionary United Front waged war against government forces and despite President Kabbah's efforts, peace could not be achieved.

President Rawlings said repercussions of that bush war was the overthrow of President Kabbah "and we are still paying the price for it".

He said the government of Sierra Leone should be assisted to restore peace and that if that should fail the result would be a long war and Ghana would not be part of it.

"We have gone through it before in Liberia and we do not want to go through it again", he said in reference to the Liberian civil war which lasted nine years.

Ghana was among the first countries to move troops into Liberia when war broke out in December 1989 and stayed until peace was restored following elections in July last year.

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