West African Peacekeepers to Go to Liberia

By Cynthia Kirk
Broadcast: August 2, 2003
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In the News.
West African countries say they will send 1)peacekeeping troops to 2)Liberia on Monday to help end the conflict there. The agreement was reached Thursday. It followed an emergency meeting in Ghana of the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS.
About one-thousand-five-hundred Nigerian troops are to arrive in Liberia as the first part of the peacekeeping force. Ghana, Mali, Benin, Senegal and Togo agreed to provide three-thousand more troops later.
The West African leaders also said President Charles Taylor is to leave Liberia within three days of the arrival of peacekeeping troops. The United States and other countries have demanded that he leave the country. Mister Taylor has accepted an offer of exile in Nigeria.
Over the past few weeks, Mister Taylor has said several times that he would resign and leave Liberia.
West African leaders arrived Friday in Monrovia, the capital, to negotiate Mister Taylor's resignation. But reports said he was in Buchanan, in southeastern Liberia. His forces have been fighting 3)rebels in that 4)port city.
West African leaders have been under pressure to speed the deployment¹ of a peacekeeping force to Liberia. Two rebel groups have fought for the past three years to oust² the president. Also, Mister Taylor 5)is charged with war crimes. He 6)is accused of supporting rebels across the border in Sierra Leone.
The rebels in Liberia renewed their offensive against Mister Taylor's government in early June. They later signed a cease-fire agreement. But fighting has increased in the past two weeks.
Aid groups say more than one-thousand civilians³ have died in the fighting. Thousands have been forced from their homes. The unrest has cut off supplies of food and clean water to Monrovia. That city has more than one million people.
West African leaders have been talking about how to pay for a peacekeeping operation in Liberia. Military officials estimate a cost of more than one-hundred-million dollars to have peacekeeping troops in Liberia for six months. The United States already has promised to pay ten-million dollars to support the troops.
The United States is under pressure to intervene. It has close ties with Liberia. Liberia was founded in eighteen-forty-seven as a homeland for freed American slaves.
Earlier this week, the Bush administration proposed a resolution in the United Nations. The resolution calls for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force to Liberia. The United States also has directed three ships with Marines to Liberia.
President Bush said the Marines would provide limited support for a joint⁴ force of West African and United Nations troops. But Mister Bush says Charles Taylor must leave the country and a cease-fire must be in place before that happens.
This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember.

注释：
1) peacekeeping troop  维和部队
2) Liberia [lai5biEriE] n.利比里亚（西非国家）
3) rebel [5rebEl] n.造反者，叛乱者
4) port [pC:t] n.港口
5) be charged with  承担, 被控告
6) accuse of  因某事控告某人

1 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

2 oust   

vt.剥夺，取代，驱逐

参考例句：

• The committee wanted to oust him from the union.委员会想把他从工会中驱逐出去。
• The leaders have been ousted from power by nationalists.这些领导人被民族主义者赶下了台。

3 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

4 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。