Bush Comments Spark Debate on AFRICOM in Liberia

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20 February 2008

Recent comments by President Bush about Liberia as a possible host nation for headquarters of the U.S. military African command have ignited a debate in the West African nation itself.  The Liberian government is expressing its support, but security analysts are wondering about such a command's usefulness.  VOA's Nico Colombant reports from Monrovia.

Just prior to his Africa trip, which will take him to the Liberian capital Thursday, President Bush said the United States would seriously consider Liberia as the headquarters for the new African command.

In an interview with VOA, Liberia's minister of national defense, Brownie Samukai reiterated his government's willingness to host the U.S. African command, known as AFRICOM.

But instead in 1989, Charles Taylor, who had escaped from a U.S. jail four years before, started a rebellion, which would eventually engulf the entire West Africa region in a cycle of brutal civil war. 

Mr. Taylor, who became Liberia's president, is now on trial in The Hague on charges of war crimes in Sierra Leone.  He says he is a victim of an international conspiracy against him.

Tubman, who served as the U.N. secretary-general special representative to war-torn Somalia from 2002 to 2005, says he has been interested by another idea recently talked about by U.S. officials, to help fund a large contingent of permanently mobile African peacekeepers.

"We do not always want to go around begging for people to send troops here. If, we, ourselves, are in a posture where we have troops already trained with such a mission in mind, then when the trouble comes, they will be quickly made available and they will be able to go to the trouble spots to contain things," he explained.

For the time being, U.S. officials say they are focusing on expanding AFRICOM, which is due to become fully operational by October, with a staff of about 1,300, 40 percent of whom will be civilians.