Liberians meet to choose new le ader

LIBERIA: Liberia's warring factions sat down together yesterday to choose the leader of a two-year transition government meant…

LIBERIA: Liberia's warring factions sat down together yesterday to choose the leader of a two-year transition government meant to end 14 years of bloodshed and prepare for elections.

West African mediators, desperate to end a crisis which has poisoned their region, want the delegates to move as quickly as possible to appoint someone to replace President Moses Blah in October.

Mr Blah took office after former leader Charles Taylor flew into exile last week. Mr Blah's representatives met the two rebel factions to choose from a shortlist of three candidates selected by political parties and other interest groups.

The meeting was held up for hours while mediators looked into an appeal from a former vice-president, Mr Harry Moniba, who said he did not make the shortlist because of vote irregularities. They rejected his claim.

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The choice is between former UN official and open Taylor opponent, Ms Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Mr Rudolph Sherman, who heads a coalition regarded as broadly sympathetic to Taylor, and Monrovia businessman Mr Gyude Bryant of the Liberia Action Party.

Taylor's departure paved the way for rebels of LURD, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, to hand over control of parts of Liberia's capital Monrovia to a regional peacekeeping force backed by US marines and aircraft.

However, security is still a huge concern to aid agencies desperately trying to get emergency supplies in through the devastated port to help hundreds of thousands of people left destitute by the war.

"Nothing is finished here," UN envoy Mr Jacques Paul Klein said. "I think we are just actually getting started. No one has been demobilised yet, nobody has been demilitarised."

Mr Klein reckoned 15,000 peacekeepers would be needed to ensure a proper end to Liberia's crisis - 10 times as many as are currently on the ground. West African countries have pledged more than 3,000 troops, although most are still to come.

The new government will share power between political parties, the outgoing administration and the two rebel groups who control more than two-thirds of Liberia.

Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes and 2,000 killed in the most recent spell of blood-letting to seize a country where a civil war killed 200,000 in the 1990s.