US troops could lead Liberia peacekeeping force

Accra, July 9, GNA - A US-led international force of nearly 3,000 troops could be deployed in Liberia soon as part of efforts to restore peace to the war-torn country, mediators at the Liberia peace talks in Accra said on Wednesday.

Diplomats close to the talks told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the force, made up of 1,500 American soldiers and 1,250 troops from ECOWAS, could move into Liberia in the next two weeks to enforce a fragile ceasefire between the two rebel groups, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and troops loyal to embattled President Charles Taylor.

The US has agreed to provide an initial 10 million dollars for "a quick" deployment of the troops, the source said.

ECOWAS military and defence chiefs, who met in Accra last week said they would need 104 million dollars for a six-month mission. They pledged 3,000 troops and said the US should help by providing troop, money and logistics, among other things.

The source said the West African force would consist of 500 troops from Nigeria and 250 each from Ghana, Senegal and Mali. "We don't foresee any hitch for now. Everything is on course and I believe it will be sooner than later."

Embattled President Taylor, who is under pressure to step aside, has repeatedly said he would only do so upon the arrival of an international force, possibly led by the US.

ECOWAS has also contacted the US to lead a regional force in Liberia but Washington is yet to make public any decision to send troops to Liberia.

It has, however, sent a verification team to Monrovia, Liberia, on an assessment mission.

President George Bush, who is presently on a five-nation African tour last Tuesday had a closed-door meeting with eight ECOWAS leaders, including its Chairman, President John Agyekum Kufuor in Dakar, Senegal, and assured them of his commitment to support efforts at ending the Liberian conflict.

The support will include logistics, finances, technical and human resources, he stated.

According to Mr Kwabena Agyepong, Press Secretary of President Kufuor, President Bush gave the assurance that the US would endeavour to create "an effective military response mechanism" to be deployed quickly in the West African Sub-Region.

"The US has pledged its commitment to do whatever is necessary to assist ECOWAS to maintain a ceasefire and bring an end to the human sufferings in Liberia", he said.

He added that President Bush stressed the need to maintain a ceasefire for peaceful transfer of power.

The Heads of State of Ghana, Senegal, Benin, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Niger and Cape Verde attended the meeting.

Diplomats in Accra said they expected deployment of the US-led international force in Liberia would be a "swift response" to President Taylor's demand for the deployment of such a force as a condition for his stepping aside.

However, Ms Susan Parker-Burns, Information Officer at the US Embassy in Accra, said her outfit had no information about the proposed deployment of 1,500 US troops in Liberia.

"President Bush is still considering various options for supporting the Liberian peace process and we have no definite information right now regarding troops deployment," she told the GNA over the phone. She added that Washington considered Taylor's stepping down as an important element to solving the crisis.

Find out who ordered execution of my husband - Mrs Afrifa

Accra, July 9, GNA - Mrs Christine Afrifa, wife of the late Lt. Gen. Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, member of the erstwhile National Liberation Council, on Wednesday appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) and requested to know who authorised the execution of her husband in 1979.

Mrs Afrifa also appealed to the Commission to de-confiscate Gen Afrifa's assets as well as a prompt action on the Greenstreet Report that recommended benefits for ex-presidents and heads of state. The former First Lady, now declared British, said she had no ill feelings against those who executed her husband.

She said she had also encouraged her seven children to feel the same way, pointing out that revenge would perpetuate a cycle of vengeance in which nobody would win.

Mrs Afrifa said her family's woes and hardships began in 1972 when General Kutu Acheampong, who had been a Commissioner when her husband was head of state, staged a military coup and assumed power as head of state.

Mrs Afrifa said not long after her husband had gone to ask General Acheampong why he staged the coup he was arrested, placed under house arrest, and later incarcerated at the James Fort Prison for 18 months. She said he was kept in isolation while in jail, as the Prison was then a women's prison.

She said after Gen. Afrifa was released, they went to settle at a village in Krobo and went into farming.

Mrs Afrifa said Gen Afrifa refused to join the General Acheampong's Union Government in 1978 and he subsequently came under constant harassment. He went into exile in Togo and then the United Kingdom. She said her husband returned to Ghana, after which she later heard that he had been executed.

"Nobody has been able to tell me why he was arrested and killed.... All his property had been confiscated until today," she said.

Mrs Afrifa said she had petitioned all governments since then, and had had only her matrimonial home and a car returned to her.

Her children had also petitioned the government of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) to the present government but had had very little response.

She said the Sowah Assets Committee had cleared her husband.

On pension benefits of her husband, she said she was being given her monthly share after President John Agyekum Kufuor ordered the exhumation of the bodies of the generals executed along with her husband, but Accountant the General's Department had stopped for some time now.

She said she wondered why the payment was being withheld since others were still receiving theirs.

Mrs Afrifa said her lawyer also approached Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, a government minister, over a lump sum of 41 million cedis recommended in the Greenstreet Report, but the Minister told her lawyer that "they were looking into it."

According to Mrs Afrifa, she had not yet received the 500 sheep seized from their Katakyie Farms, officially confiscated to the state and sent to the Ghana National Reconstruction Corporation in Kumasi.

Commissioner General Emmanuel Alexander Erskine said the work of the Commission would not be complete if it failed to examine the case of the executed generals.

General Erskine was a member of a committee President John Kufuor appointed to see to the exhumation and reburial of the bodies of the executed generals.

Chairman Justice Kweku Amua-Sekyi said the Commission would get in touch immediately with the Accountant General's Department to see what it could do to restore the suspended pension payment to her.