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Marines join nigerian peacekeepers { August 15 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56774-2003Aug14.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56774-2003Aug14.html
With Flourish, Marines Enter Monrovia
Liberians Cheer as Jets and Gunships Sweep Sky Over the Battered Capital
By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 15, 2003; Page A16
MONROVIA, Liberia, Aug. 14 -- U.S. Marines joined Nigerian peacekeepers in reassembling this divided capital today, deploying into what had been rebel territory accompanied by the scream of Harrier jets overhead and the cheers of Liberians all around them.
"A good day, gentlemen, a very good day," said Cpl. Rodney Taylor of Beckley, W.Va., cradling his M-16 on the far side of the city's main bridge, a concrete arch that links -- and during war divided -- each half of Monrovia.
"We love you people!" said Famata Hassan, peering from a rise toward about 60 Marines who had just arrived by helicopter at the city's idled seaport. She was looking at a unit of combat troops and engineers who will help open the harbor to cargo ships bearing food for this famished city.
"We say thank you very much," Hassan said. "We appreciate it. Maybe George Bush will come see us someday."
It was the first U.S. peacekeeping deployment in Africa since forces entered Somalia in 1992 on a mission that was ended after 18 commandos died in one battle the following year. In terms of troop strength, this operation is far smaller.
About 200 members of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit climbed out of transport helicopters from the USS Iwo Jima over the course of the day, with four amphibious landing craft depositing Marines inside Monrovia's economically crucial seaport.
The largest contingent formed a rapid-reaction force that U.S. officers said may remain at Monrovia's international airport.
What the Americans lacked in numbers they more than made up for in emphasis. In a dramatically choreographed display of force, the blue sky over Monrovia swarmed with battleship-gray military hardware.
Cobra gunships bristling with rockets circled the city all day. Harrier jets screeched again and again over the city in late morning, tipping their wings over the crumbling downtown. H-46 and H-53 troop transport helicopters thumped toward the billowing yellow smoke that marked landing zones, a few of the aircraft dangling Humvees and pallets of razor wire.
The show of force was intended to discourage any armed groups that might remain in the city, where for two months this summer bizarrely dressed rebel fighters fought the poorly trained militias loyal to Charles Taylor, the Liberian president who resigned and went into exile Monday.
But at the bridges that had been the front line, the day dawned with barely a militia fighter in sight. Instead, tens of thousands of civilians gathered behind a Nigerian roadblock on the government side, waiting to cross to the side where food was plentiful and loved ones waited.
"I want to see my people," said William Karoh, 24, whose younger brother, Kaba, 17, was trapped behind the front of the rebel offensive last month.
"I'm going to look for food to eat," said Jerry Togbah, 29.
In an emotionally brittle city where indiscriminate mortar fire killed many hundreds over the last two months, the abrupt, percussive roar of the first Harrier's pass over the main bridge caused a collective flinch. The entire crowd ducked at the sound, then, in the next instant, leapt at the sight of what had caused it.
"I'm happy to see them," said Otello Carr, 14.
How many U.S. troops -- if any at all -- were coming ashore was unknown even after Taylor left for asylum in Nigeria on Monday. The former president, indicted for war crimes by a U.N.-endorsed court in Sierra Leone, left under intense international pressure led by President Bush, who linked his departure to any direct U.S. participation in an international stabilization force.
That force is led by Nigeria, under the banner of the Economic Community of West African States, a regional bloc. But with only 800 Nigerians in Liberia and the arrival of a second battalion behind schedule, the Pentagon went ahead with today's dramatic deployment.
The peacekeeping mission is expected to come under the U.N. flag by October or November, depending on how quickly member states come forward with troops. U.N. officials are pressuring Washington to lead the mission, saying a well-equipped Western army is necessary to assure success.
"They couldn't tell us how long we'd be here," said Cpl. Joe Kendall of Oakdale, Calif., standing on the tarmac at Roberts International Airport, where nine helicopter troop transports swept in at 8:20 a.m. Four more arrived a couple of hours later, while Cobras circled the perimeter.
It was a rare day of promise for Liberia. Moments after the Marines arrived, a jet carrying the new Liberian president, Moses Blah, took off for Accra, Ghana. Blah met there with the leaders of the rebel groups that control more than two-thirds of the country: Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, or MODEL.
"I believe that political progress will be made," said U.S. Ambassador John W. Blaney. Blaney said MODEL had agreed to withdraw behind the St. John River, a natural boundary near the port city of Buchanan, the heart of the group's territory.
LURD's irregular forces, meanwhile, were making good today on their vow to pull back to the Po River north of Monrovia. As a convoy of Nigerian and U.S. officers toured the rebel side, it passed scores of young male and female fighters piled atop looted vehicles, moving out of town laden with the spoils of war: rice, desktop computers and, in the back of one pickup, a bedroom set. "For the chief of staff," said the boy soldier seated on the dresser.
The only gunfire was celebratory. One wild-haired fighter shot his AK-47 into the air in a specific rhythm that civilians answered with an anti-Taylor chant.
"They play music with the gun," said Sietigela Nah, a young man at a roadside market jammed with rice and other grains that have been plentiful on the rebel side, mostly because of looting from the port.
Late in the day, as Nigerians stood guard on the heavily looted main avenue, a convoy of U.N. and other aid agencies crossed the bridge to begin an assessment of the humanitarian situation in LURD territory. Doctors Without Borders, the French medical aid group, which sent a team over Wednesday, reported "virtually no access to health care" all the way to the Sierra Leone border.
All the while, the main bridge remained closed to the waiting throngs. Some, unable to wait until checkpoints could be constructed from boards and razor wire dropped by helicopter, leapt into the lagoon and swam across. Others danced in front of the U.N.-trained Nigerians who blocked the road, slapping the soldiers' palms as they passed.
"No more looting. No more killing. It's nice now," said Ivan Grigsby, on the high ground above the port, watching the Marines.
Dekontee Williams, standing next to him, offered a correction.
"It's getting nice," he said.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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