Economic Community Of West African States

The Bush Administration on Saturday urged Liberia's besieged President Samuel K. Doe to relinquish power to an interim government that could schedule early elections and end a bloody civil war. State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler encouraged Doe's government and the rebel forces led by Charles Taylor to cooperate with mediation efforts by the Economic Community of West African States.

Sentiment is growing among West African leaders for the withdrawal from Liberia of the costly and largely ineffective military task force they deployed in August in that war-stricken country. Leaders of the 16-nation Economic Community of West African States may meet by the end of this month to settle the future of the 6,000-strong task force, according to diplomatic sources here in neighboring Ivory Coast.

Sentiment is growing among West African leaders for the withdrawal from Liberia of the costly and largely ineffective military task force they deployed in August in that war-stricken country. Leaders of the 16-nation Economic Community of West African States may meet by the end of this month to settle the future of the 6,000-strong task force, according to diplomatic sources here in neighboring Ivory Coast.

The Bush Administration on Saturday urged Liberia's besieged President Samuel K. Doe to relinquish power to an interim government that could schedule early elections and end a bloody civil war. State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler encouraged Doe's government and the rebel forces led by Charles Taylor to cooperate with mediation efforts by the Economic Community of West African States.

The visiting chairman of the Economic Community of West African States appealed for calm in Togo, urging the volatile nation's leaders to form a unity government. At least 22 people were killed nationwide this week and about 100 were wounded in fighting that erupted after the disputed April 24 election, the government and the International Committee of the Red Cross said. Opposition claims that 100 people were killed could not be independently verified. The U.N.

West African defense chiefs agreed to create a 6,500-strong multinational force to respond to "crisis and threats to peace" in the region. The core of the force will consist of 1,500 "highly trained and equipped" rapid-response troops and 3,500 backups. The remaining soldiers will form a reserve, the Economic Community of West African States said in a statement released after a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria. It was unclear when the force would come into being.

Ships carrying a West African peacekeeping force with orders to end Liberia's civil war arrived today off the capital, Monrovia, but rebels said they would fight it. The fleet of four warships and a cargo vessel did not attempt to land its 3,000 soldiers but tried in vain to raise port authorities on the radio, diplomats in contact with their embassies in Monrovia said. The ships carrying troops from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, Gambia and Ghana made radio contact with the U.S.

A West African task force to halt the fighting in Liberia boarded warships today, and diplomats said the hundreds of soldiers were ready to sail for the besieged capital of Monrovia. Soldiers, tanks and other weapons boarded the ships after rebel leader Charles Taylor refused to go to a meeting he had earlier agreed to attend to discuss a cease-fire with Gambian leader Sir Dawda Jawara. Jawara is current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States.

West African leaders said Saturday that they are imposing an arms embargo on Guinea over the killing of pro-democracy demonstrators by soldiers and will try to stop Guinea's military ruler from running in January's presidential election. Regional leaders attended an emergency meeting Saturday of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, and said at a news conference afterward that they would step up pressure on members of the military government, which took power in a coup in December, not to seek office.

Rebels fighting a five-nation West African peacekeeping force in Liberia have called for a summit of all 16 regional heads of state to end the civil war there, Togolese officials said Sunday. Tom Woewiyu, spokesman for the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, urged Togo President Gnassingbe Eyadema to back the call for a meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), they said.

More than 60 soldiers of the Liberia peacekeeping force died during battles with guerrillas in the town of Tubmanburg last week, residents said. "This place was covered with so many ECOMOG bodies," resident Annita Dolleh told reporters taken to the town Tuesday by United Nations officers and members of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group. The town had been cut off since New Year's Day.

Liberia's fragile peace has shattered, loosing again one of Africa's most frightful conflicts and forcing an exodus of Americans, primarily missionaries, educators and relief workers who were rebuilding the nation after its civil war. Fratricidal shooting and looting were reignited when officials of the ruling council threatened to arrest a prominent militia leader, Roosevelt Johnson, who is accused of murder.