15,000 peacekeepers sought for a mending Liberia

MONROVIA, Liberia - Liberia's combatants on Thursday chose a longtime campaigner against rule by warlords to lead the country's postwar interim government.

The announcement of the selection of Gyude Bryant, a businessman seen as a consensus builder, came at the close of 78 days of tumultuous peace talks in Accra, Ghana.

The top U.N. envoy for Liberia, meanwhile, said he would ask the Security Council for 15,000 troops to secure the peace - a U.N. force that, if approved, would be the largest anywhere in the world.

Speaking in Monrovia, U.N. envoy Jacques Klein, an American, also said he had asked the United States to keep some of its troops here to help train a new army for Liberia, despite President Bush's commitment to pulling out a roughly 200-strong U.S. deployment by Oct. 1.

"We are hoping the U.S. will take it on," Klein told the Associated Press.

An 11-member U.N. assessment team arrived in Monrovia, charged with briefing the Security Council before it determines the scope and mission of the already-approved U.N. peace force.

Two rebel movements and the government signed a peace accord Monday, ending the latest in 14 years of militia rivalries that bloodied and ruined Liberia, once sub-Saharan Africa's richest nation.

The accord followed Charles Taylor's Aug. 11 resignation and flight into exile under pressure from fellow West African leaders, the United States and rebels laying siege to his capital.

In Accra, the West African mediator for 21/2 months of talks sent the combatants home Thursday with an admonition to keep the peace and a plea for all Liberians to support it.

"You have to play your part," mediator Abdulsalami Abubakar, a retired Nigerian general, said after delegates finished their deliberations before dawn. "Your country has bled for quite some time now."

Under Monday's peace accord, Bryant (whose first name is pronounced "JOOD-eh") and his administration will take over Oct. 14 from Moses Blah, the former vice president selected by Taylor as his successor.

He is to serve as chairman in a two-year interim government that will preside over elections, turning over power to democratically chosen successors in 2005.

In Monrovia, Klein, the U.N. envoy, said he had presented a request to the U.S. ambassador to have U.S. forces remain to train Liberia's lawless, vicious army.

"Some European countries have said they will only participate in the U.N. mission if there's a residual American presence. . . . That's why we would like them to do the army part," said Klein, a retired U.S. Air Force major general.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright