LIBERIA: A WEST AFRICAN PEACEFORCE IS GRADUALLY STARTING TO FAN OUT FROM MONROVIA INTO LAWLESS COUNTYSIDE

Record ID: 350407

  • Title: LIBERIA: A WEST AFRICAN PEACEFORCE IS GRADUALLY STARTING TO FAN OUT FROM MONROVIA INTO LAWLESS COUNTYSIDE
  • Date: 12th September 2003
  • Summary: (U4)TODEE JUNCTION, LIBERIA (SEPTEMBER 12, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SV COLONEL MAC NYOYOKO, CHIEF OF OPERATIONS FOR THE 3,200 WEST AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS OF ECOMIL FORCES SPEAKING WITH LIBERIAN MILITIAMEN AND COMMANDING THEM TO LEAVE TODEE JUNCTION 0.06 2. SV ECOMIL SOLDIERS AT POST 0.09 3. SLV/MCU ECOMIL COMMANDER OF OPERATIONS TALKS WITH MILITIAM
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TODEE JUNCTION AND HARDEL TOWN, LIBERIA
  • Country: Liberia
  • Reuters ID: LVACT0SHALBNK3ORV5VN41CAEOCZ
  • Story Text: A West African peaceforce fanning out from Liberia's
    capital is confronting miliias in the bush.



    A West African peacekeeping force is gradually
    starting to fan out from Liberia's capital, Monrovia into
    the lawless countryside, to bring security to a land that
    has known little but conflict for nearly 14 years.

    But most of the bush is still in the hands of either
    ragtag rebels or the almost indistinguishable loyalist
    militias who fought for pariah leader Charles Taylor until
    his flight into exile a month ago. Now they just look after
    themselves.

    "What are you doing here? If I see you again I will
    seize your weapons," the
    Nigerian colonel shouted at two Liberian militiamen caught
    in what is now meant to be a gun-free zone.

    "Yes sir. Understood sir," they responded sheeply to
    the peacekeeping officer before accepting a ride back to
    their bush camp on Friday.

    One hour later, Colonel Mac Nyoyoko, chief of
    operations for the 3,200 West African peacekeepers sent to
    silence the guns in Liberia, was eyeball to eyeball with
    Major James Sindway and a dozen rugged fighters from his
    Wild Geese militia, whose name has become a byword for
    terror in the thick forest south of Kakata.

    The militiamen were supposed to have pulled back deep
    into the bush from Kakata as the peacekeepers moved there
    on Wednesday in their first deployment outside Monrovia,
    but the few villagers who have not yet left the area say
    that they are still roaming around in search for food and
    loot.

    "Only the armed men they are the only ones to
    intimidate us. In the day you will not find them. Only in
    the night." said Joel Garnett in the bush village of Hardel
    Town.

    Aid workers say government fighters, many of whom
    have not been paid for months, if not years, often open
    fire near villages, claiming rebels are attacking to
    frighten people away and steal their possessions. At times,
    they will force people at gunpoint to carry whatever they
    have managed to grab on their way.

    "I don't want to see any of your men at the
    junction.They have no business there. If you want to go
    there, drop your weapon and go empty handed. Go, buy what
    you want and come
    back," Nyoyoko told Sindway.

    The militia commander said his men were attacked by
    the rebels and had come to set up our defence positions and
    persuade the population to return to the area.

    But Nyoyoko refuted the claim that there were any
    rebels left in the area and accused the militiamen of
    intimidating the local people and stealing their possessions.

    About 650 peacekeepers have taken position on the main
    road from Kakata to Totota, some 70 km to the north, to
    keep government forces and rebels apart and allow
    humanitarian aid to reach tens of thousands of refugees
    scattered in nearby camps.

    But they can do little to control the surrounding bush
    and they have no formal mandate to disarm the looting-prone
    fighters on both sides of the frontline.

    That task is to be taken up by a United Nations force
    which is expected to start deploying next month and is
    unlikely to be up and running before March next year.


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