Liberia Peace Talks at Risk

After President Taylor told radio listeners that he will not step down despite his recent promise to do so, one of the rebel groups that is part of the June 17 cease-fire accord is threatening to walk away from the fragile peace talks.

The Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), the main rebel group in the war torn country, is accusing lead negotiator Mohamed Ibn Chambas of taking sides in the talks calling him a Taylor “spokesman”.

Chambas, executive secretary of the West African bloc mediating the negotiations, earned the nickname after saying that the President’s banning from taking part of the proposed transitional government is “subject of future debate”.

The cease-fire accord signed between Taylor’s government and the two main rebel groups call for a transitional government and peace talks. Taylor is supposed to step down and not lead the transitional government.

The rebels say Taylor's exclusion was a "material condition" of the accord.

In other news, Switzerland is ordering its banks to block access to any accounts held by President Taylor, his relatives and government members, following a request by the UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone.

“He is claimed to have invested the proceeds from the diamond sales in a number of countries, including Switzerland,” the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said in a statement, referring to Taylor’s alleged earnings from conflict diamonds.

"The money may be evidence of the joint criminal enterprise that we allege Taylor, with several other indictees, conducted in Sierra Leone over a period of years. In conjunction with the Swiss, we will work to disentangle Taylor's finances and identify the profits he reaped from his criminal activity here,” says David Crane, the Special Court Prosecutor in Sierra Leone.

Swiss officials said the value of the frozen Liberian assets is not known, however it is estimated at $1.5 billion.