decapitated heads on parade

[Gość: awalk]

THE crisis in Liberia has reached disastrous humanitarian proportions and Africa and the world at large needs to do far more than is currently the case to intervene and bring about peace there.

This week British aid agencies called for a United Nations resolution to be passed as a matter or urgency to enable the immediate deployment of international peacekeepers to the war-torn country.

In the United States, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has accused the Bush Administration of 'turning its back on Liberia', and adding that their reluctance to deploy troops to the strife-torn country proves that race remains a "significant factor" in the way America relates to the world.

He felt that Liberia was especially worthy of US assistance in light of the humanitarian crisis there as well as the West African country's role as perhaps America's most dependable Cold War ally in Africa.

He contrasted what he saw as US inattention to Africa with the US occupation of Iraq which is costing resources and American lives and is becoming a 'quagmire'.

There is perhaps a glimmer of light in that US officials will join West African leaders today in Sierra Leone to discuss ways of supporting the deployment of peacekeepers, but it may also be a case of 'too little, too late'.

Hundreds of people have died there in fighting in the past few days alone; and the full horror of the brutality - as made clear in the visuals of decapitated heads on parade - is enough to turn the stomach of the most hardened observer.

Although this newspaper received some criticism for its publication of a front page photograph showing bodies piled up in front of the US embassy in Liberia, we believe that words alone cannot demonstrate the scale of atrocities which are taking place in that country.

Citizens of the world should be galvanised by this horror to impress upon their various governments the need for action to bring the carnage and terrible civilian suffering to an end.

ECOWAS countries have pledged to send troops, but it is worrying that so far, only the Nigerians have committed two battalions to be deployed there on a date which is still to be set.

And in the meantime the carnage continues as ceasefires are broken.

Liberia also represents a humanitarian challenge for the newly-formed African Union, whose leadership could be more proactive in trying to forge a solution for the sake of the Liberian people.

We have not heard our own Government react to the crisis in that country; and we believe that protesting African voices should be in the forefront of those who are seeking a settlement in the strife-torn West African state.

It is one thing for Africa to urge the involvement of US peacekeepers, but they too must play their part, rather than rely on the West to do it for them.

The Liberian President has been urged to step down by the US, and he has promised to do so, albeit only once peacekeepers are in place.

There seems to be little to no pressure on Taylor from African heads of state to leave, apart from an offer of political asylum from Nigeria, and the AU must be cognisant that their reputation as an 'old boys club' will perpetuate unless they try to convince people otherwise.

In short, the situation in Liberia is an urgent one.

The human suffering there has already reached intolerable proportions and Africa and the world at large seems to be no big hurry to do something about it.

As in all cases of humanitarian crisis, passivity has no place, and concerted urgent action needs to be undertaken to stem the rising tide of death and suffering in Liberia.