LIBERIA: INTERNATIONAL AID WORKERS ARRIVE TO EVACUATE WOUNDED FROM REBEL-HELD AREAS IN MONROVIA.

Record ID: 647376

  • Title: LIBERIA: INTERNATIONAL AID WORKERS ARRIVE TO EVACUATE WOUNDED FROM REBEL-HELD AREAS IN MONROVIA.
  • Date: 9th August 2003
  • Summary: (W6) MONROVIA, LIBERIA (AUGUST 8, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: ICRC (INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS) VEHICLES IN CONVOY HEADING INTO REBEL-HELD TERRITORY FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE JULY 19 (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. MV: SOLDIER CHECKING IDENTITY OF ICRC DEPUTY REPRESENTATIVE IN LIBERIA, JORDI REICH (2 SHOTS) 0.18 3. MCU; SOUNDBITE (English) ICRC DEPUTY REPRESENTATIVE IN LIBERIA JORDI REICH, SAYING: "We're coming in to assess the situation, especially on this side, especially regarding wounded. The idea is to visit three or four places where they know they've been collecting the wounded, and if possible evacuate those that need urgent surgery to the JFK hospital or to provide them with medicines or medical treatment for those that can be treated on this side." 0.43 4. GV: ICRC VEHICLES TRAVELLING IN LINE IN REBEL-HELD AREA (2 SHOTS) 0.52 (W6) MONROVIA, LIBERIA (AUGUST 7, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 5. MV/GV: WOUNDED PEOPLE IN FIELD HOSPITAL IN REBEL-HELD AREA, MEDIC TREATING WOUNDED PERSON (4 SHOTS) 1.09 (W6) MONROVIA, LIBERIA (AUGUST 8, 2003)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 6. MV/GV: STREETS ON REBEL-HELD SIDE; REBELS STANDING; BOY SITTING IN STREET HOLDING RIFLE; ARMED REBELS DRIVING IN PICKUP (5 SHOTS) 1.32 7. GV: DISPLACED PEOPLE WALKING ALONG STREETS WITH BUNDLES ON THEIR HEADS 1.36 8. VARIOUS: REBEL SOLDIERS SITTING AROUND HOLDING WEAPONS; REBEL SOLDIERS DANCING AND CHANTING; REBEL BOY HOLDING MORTAR SHELL SITTING NEXT TO MONKEY; WIDE OF STREET (13 SHOTS) 2.29 9. GV: NIGERIAN SOLDIERS FROM ECOWAS (THE ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES) ON PATROL IN WHITE ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIERS 2.33 10. GV/MV: CROWDS CHANTING AND DANCING AND RUNNING ALONGSIDE THE NIGERIAN ECOWAS ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIERS (5 SHOTS) 2.54 11. GV: TRACKING VIEW OF NIGERIAN ECOWAS TROOPS ON PERSONNEL CARRIERS (2 SHOTS) 3.05 12. MCU; SOUNDBITE (English) CHIEF OF STAFF OF LIBERIAN GOVERNMENT TROOPS, GENERAL BENJAMIN EDATEAN SAYING: "It's cooling down now...The war is over, that's what I've said to you..." 3.18 13. MV/PAN: CHIEF OF LIBERIAN GOVERNMENT TROOPS WALKING WITH AIDES 3.26 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 24th August 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MONROVIA, LIBERIA
  • Country: Liberia
  • Reuters ID: LVAE0RWSAZ1D8BCG5945OZMY9N4N
  • Story Text: Aid workers have ventured into rebel-held territory in the Liberian
    capital Monrovia to evacuate wounded

    Aid workers ventured into rebel territory in
    Monrovia on Friday (August 8) for the first time since
    fighting erupted in the capital last month.

    A convoy from the International Committee of the Red
    Cross (ICRC) and Doctors without Borders rolled into rebel
    territory, the first time aid workers have been able to
    cross the front-line since the latest attack started on
    July 19.

    Jordi Reich, ICRC deputy representative in Liberia,
    said the aid workers aimed to evacuate any war-wounded
    needing major surgery and bring medicines to isolated
    clinics. The convoy was escorted by rebels through their
    war-torn terrain.

    At a field hospital on the rebel side on Thursday
    (August 7), medics treated wounded but the hospital seemed
    poorly equipped.

    Things appeared fairly calm on the rebel side on Friday
    (August 8), with young rebel soldiers taking time out to
    dance to hip-hop tunes blaring from a ghetto-blaster.

    West African peacekeepers were also on patrol in
    Monrovia on Friday (August 8), after a jubilant welcome the
    day before from war-weary people who hope the foreign
    soldiers will help pull the city back from a growing
    humanitarian catastrophe.

    People ran alongside the ECOWAS (The Economic Community
    of West African States) armoured personnel carriers (APCs)
    waving branches symbolising peace and chanting: "We want
    peace, no more war."
    Others waved white scraps of cloth as a sign of peace.

    Urgent access to the rebel-held Freeport port area is
    needed so food and supplies can be brought to hundreds of
    thousands of refugees packed into Monrovia.

    General Benjamin Edatean, Chief of Staff of Liberian
    government troops, said he believed the war was over
    "It's cooling down now...The war is over, that's what
    I've said to you," Edatean said.

    Even as a fragile truce appeared to take hold, clouds
    gathered over peace hopes as rebels threatened to continue
    their war if President Charles Taylor hands over power to
    his vice president as he plans to do on Monday (August 11).

    Rebels had promised to pull out of the port once
    peacekeepers arrived, but told Reuters on Friday (August 8)
    that Taylor's forces first had to withdraw from the rest of
    Monrovia.

    Taylor, a former warlord wanted for war crimes by a
    United Nations (U.N.)-backed court in Sierra Leone, is due
    to hand over power to Vice-President Moses Blah next Monday
    (August 11) and leave the country shortly afterwards.

    But he has not yet set a date for his departure and the
    rebels are uncomfortable with Blah, an old ally from days
    of guerrilla training in Libya and Taylor's bush war in the
    1990s.

    Three assaults by Liberians United for Reconciliation
    and Democracy (LURD) on Monrovia since June have cost at
    least 2,000 lives and stranded hundreds of thousands of
    people with barely enough food to survive. The fighting is
    just the latest bloody chapter in 14 years of almost
    non-stop war.

    There are now some 450 West African peacekeepers in
    Monrovia -- the vanguard of a thousands-strong force.




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