US Military Team Arrives in Liberia to Assess Humanitarian Mission

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 08, 2003

US Military Team Arrives in Liberia to Assess Humanitarian Mission

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A 20-member US military team arrived in Liberia's capital early on Monday on a mission to assess how best to bring stability to the war-torn west African country ahead of a possible humanitarian mission, according to reports reaching Lagos from Monrovia.

The United States is debating whether to send peacekeepers to Liberia ruined by nearly 14 years of violence. President George W. Bush, due to leave for Africa later on Monday, has not yet decided whether to send peacekeepers to Liberia.

However, he has made several calls for Liberian Charles Taylor to step down from his post. On Saturday in a broadcast interview with CNN, Bush said Taylor "needs to go in order to create the conditions necessary for a peaceful solution" in Liberia.

President Taylor has been indicted for war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone by a UN-mandated court and an exile plan is one of the options being considered for him.

Taylor accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria on Sunday. However, he insisted that he would leave only when US peacekeepingtroops are in place.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has approved the setting up of a 3,000-strong force for Liberia and called on the United States, South Africa and Morocco to provide the extra troops to make it up to 5,000.

Two rebel groups are fighting to oust Taylor and his government.The renewed fighting broke out in late June between the rebels andthe Liberian government troops had left some 700 people dead and over 1,000 injured, making it the worst phase in the four-year bloody civil war in the country.

The Liberian civil war, which lasted about 15 years and claimedat least 200,000 lives, flared up again in 1998 following attacks launched by the LURD rebels in northern Liberia.

Civil war over the past decade has made Liberia among the most miserable places in the world and the latest unrest since 1998 hasforced some 300,000 Liberians to flee to neighboring countries andclaimed thousands more lives.

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