Liberia Peacekeeping Plan Falters

UNITED NATIONS —  Plans for Nigerian troops to spearhead a multinational peacekeeping force in Liberia have stalled as the United States and Nigeria face off over paying for the intervention.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said 1,500 Nigerian soldiers were ready to go into Liberia but needed more than the $10 million in financial support the U.S. has offered.

Concerned that the mission might be falling apart, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to divert funds from a peacekeeping mission in neighboring Sierra Leone to sustain the Nigerian troops. He also urged the United States to lead the force.

Washington wants to see West African leaders pitch in before committing more money or any troops. U.S. forces en route to Liberia would be sent into the country only after a cease-fire was in place and Liberian President Charles Taylor had stepped down, U.S. officials said.

Obasanjo said that the estimated price tag for keeping 3,000 African peacekeepers in Liberia for six months is $110 million and that the African countries needed more assistance. He questioned how useful the U.S. troops would be.

“If your house is on fire and somebody says, ‘Here I am, I have my water, my fire engine. Now, when you put the fire out in your house, I will come in,’ I wonder what sort of help that is, with all due respect,” Obasanjo told the BBC in London on Tuesday after meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“What we are saying is, give us adequate material and logistical support and we will do the job,” Obasanjo said.

As discussions dragged on for the third week since Nigeria first offered its troops, Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, has collapsed into chaos and cholera. Hundreds of people have been killed in the last week, and the fall this week of Buchanan, a strategic port city, cut off the starving capital’s last aid lifeline.

“George Bush should send his men,” said Teeta Wilson, a 29-year-old police officer backing up the government forces fighting rebels near Monrovia’s Waterside Market. “We are appealing to him to stop this war. Our people are dying.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher insisted that Taylor leave, as he has promised.

President Bush announced last week that three U.S. ships carrying 4,500 troops would head toward Liberia’s coast, but he stopped short of ordering the soldiers into the country.

Walter Kansteiner, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, left for the region Monday night to increase pressure on regional leaders.

“I think the Nigerians are getting cold feet,” a U.S. official said. “They know the U.S. is under a huge amount of public pressure, but we think regional players have to step up first. We’re willing to help, but we don’t want to bankroll the whole thing.”

The haggling threatens to upset a tightly choreographed intervention. The arrival of the vanguard Nigerian forces -- due next week at the earliest -- would signal Taylor to depart. Once Monrovia is stabilized, a full multinational force -- presumably led by the U.S. -- would arrive to help install a new government and deliver aid. The multinational force would ultimately be relieved by a U.N. peacekeeping operation.

As talks dragged on, conditions worsened in Monrovia, where nearly half the country’s population has taken refuge.

Forces loyal to Taylor were battling to retake Buchanan. They also claimed to have pushed rebels back from Via Town Bridge in Monrovia.

Taylor’s troops said they were capable of keeping up the fight. Several of the soldiers were trying to shoot the locks off stalls in the Waterside Market where shoppers once could buy anything from an electric coffee pot to used clothing from America.

The market is now littered with thousands of bullet casings and aluminum siding torn down or blown off by mortar rounds. Soldiers gather in the wooden stalls that line the streets to listen to the radio, talk and watch their comrades before dashing out into the streets to fire off a few rounds themselves.

“They [the rebels] seized the port,” said Vincent Mwheb, a 24-year-old government soldier. “It’s a threat. There’s no food now. If they go back, we won’t go after them. We need peace.”

His comrade, Paul Valde, said he had been a fighter for 13 years. At 22 years old, he is a member of the special forces in Taylor’s ragtag army.

“I don’t have anyone. My ma died, my pa died,” he said. “I’m just alone.” He said his troops would never surrender to the group that calls itself Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy. “We were born here and we’ll die here,” Valde said.

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Farley reported from the United Nations and Cole from Monrovia.