Horse-trading, arms-trading

The new UN resolution misses an opportunity to tackle the regional conflict from all sides

The planned United Nations Security Council mission to West Africa will find President Charles Taylor in a tight corner. Two armed groups on two fronts supported by Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire have overstretched his Armed Forces of Liberia militia units, such as the Navy Rangers, while the loyalty of elite squads such as the Anti-Terrorist Unit is questionable. The deaths of key militia commanders such as 'Jack the Rebel' in March and Sam 'Mosquito' Bockarie in early May were serious blows (AC Vol 44 No 9). The Special Court for Sierra Leone indicted Bockarie in March and Monrovia was under pressure to hand him over. Since November, Bockarie and his supporters had fought as mercenaries in western Côte d'Ivoire for the rebel Mouvement Populaire Ivoirien du Grand-Ouest (MPIGO) and Mouvement pour la Justice et la Paix.

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Charles Taylor, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Jack the Rebel, Sam 'Mosquito' Bockarie, Sierra Leone, Felix Doh, The Freetown connection, Britain, United States, , , France, Iraq, Jeremy Greenstock, Angola, Cameroon, Mexico, Angola, Cameroon, Mexico, Nigeria, Ghana, uinea-Bissau, Pakistan, Munir Akram, Lansana Conté, Taylor's not the only problem, Senegal, Morocco, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Belgium, Sekou Conneh's, Arthur Baygbor, Roosevelt Johnson, Amos Chayee, George, Dweh, Chayee Doe, Samuel Doe, Edward Slanger, Glay William,, Mouvement Populaire Ivoirien du Grand-Ouest, Mouvement pour la Justice et la Paix, sine die

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