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Liberia Gov't: Rebels Broke Cease-Fire

Posted on: Sunday, 13 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Liberia's government accused two rebel groups Sunday of breaking the country's fragile cease-fire with attacks against four towns that killed at least 15 people.

Defense Minister Daniel Chea said the government would report the alleged violations to regional officials mediating talks between the warring sides in neighboring Ghana. He insisted the government remained committed to the truce.

The northern towns of Kwendin and Gulu were attacked Saturday. Chea did not give casualty figures for Gulu but said 15 people, including several civilians, were killed in the fighting in Kwendin, which he blamed on the rebel Movement for Democracy.

Benjamin Yeaten, a senior government military official, reported two other attacks by the Movement for Democracy against the port city of Greenville and the town of Belewalay, both in the south.

The attacks could not be independently verified. Liberia's government has been widely accused of fabricating or inflating such claims in the past.

There was no comment from the Movement for Democracy. But the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, the group that allegedly attacked Gulu, made no mention of new fighting in a statement reaffirming its commitment to peace.

The group also accused President Charles Taylor of planning to turn any multinational stabilizing force into a "life-support system" for his own government.

Taylor, who faces increasing international pressure to step down, has repeatedly offered to resign on condition peacekeepers first are deployed to his country to ensure an orderly transition.

President Bush has sent American military advisers ahead of a possible U.S. deployment to the country, which was founded by freed American slaves. Other U.S. officials are attending the peace talks in Ghana.

Bush is scheduled to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday to discuss the conflict.

A U.N.-backed international court in Sierra Leone last month indicted Taylor on war crimes charges for backing Sierra Leone rebels, whose signature atrocity was chopping off civilians' limbs and facial features.

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