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Three vie to be Liberia leader
MONROVIA, Liberia -- Liberia's warring factions are expected to meet Wednesday to thrash out who should be leader of a two-year transition government. President Moses Blah's government and two rebel groups must choose from three candidates shortlisted Tuesday by political parties and other interest groups meeting in nearby Ghana. The new government will share power between political parties, the outgoing administration and the two rebel groups, LURD and Model, who control over two-thirds of Liberia. The choice of transitional leader is between former United Nations official and open Taylor opponent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as well as Rudolph Sherman, who heads a coalition regarded as broadly sympathetic to Taylor, and Monrovia businessman Gyude Bryant of the Liberia Action Party. Johnson Sirleaf, of the Unity Party, is a former Minister of Finance of Liberia and President of the Liberia Bank for Development and Investment. Currently chairperson of the Open Society Institute West Africa (OSIWA), part of the Soros Foundation Network, she was one of seven "international eminent persons" selected by the Organization of African Unity in 1999 to investigate the Rwanda genocide. Councillor Rudolph Sherman, chairman of Liberia's oldest political party, the True Whig Party (TWP), is a firm opponent of the LURD rebels. He was the first Liberian opposition politician to openly condemn the international community for "complacency" over Liberia's civil war, local media reports say. Gyude Bryant, chairman of the Liberia Action Party, is a successful Liberian businessman and leading Anglican. He had urged Taylor's government to talk to LURD rebels. Due to take power in mid-October, the new government will face the task of reuniting a country divided by 14 years of civil war. Rival groups fought each other in Liberia for most of the time since Charles Taylor launched a rebellion in late 1989. Blah took power when Taylor left for exile last week. Taylor's departure paved the way for rebels to hand over control of parts of Liberia's capital Monrovia to a regional peacekeeping force backed by U.S. Marines and aircraft. But with some rebel activity still ongoing, 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. The U.N. World Food Programme says at least half a million people need food aid and the European Commission is proposing a 50-million-euro ($55-million) aid package. Government and rebel officials said their forces had clashed Monday and Tuesday in central Liberia. The extent of the fighting was unclear although it did not seem to pose a serious threat to the peace deal between government and rebels signed Monday in Accra. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes and 2,000 killed in the most recent spell of bloodletting in a country where civil war killed 200,000 in the 1990s.
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