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CNN Live At Daybreak
No Word Yet on if U.S. Troops Will be Sent to Liberia
Aired July 15, 2003 - 05:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: No word yet on if U.S. troops will be sent to Liberia. President Bush discussed it with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan during a White House meeting. The president says he still hasn't decided to commit American forces to the war ravaged West African nation, but he is ruling out any long-term peacekeeping role there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Any commitment we have would be limited in size and limited in tenure. Our job would be to help facilitate an ECOWAS presence, which would then be converted into a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: That ECOWAS presence President Bush referred to is regional troops from the Economic Community of West African States.
And those nations pledged 1,500 soldiers to a peacekeeping effort, but it's the arrival of American soldiers that many believe is essential to ending the conflict.
CNN's Jeff Koinange is in the Liberian capital of Monrovia.
He joins us live now -- good morning.
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, Carol.
I heard you talking about hurricane season and the weather a couple of minutes ago. If you look behind me right now, it is another miserable day in Monrovia. It has been raining all night and raining all morning and it's like this. The locals here tell us it's going to be like this up until September. It's miserable. It's wet. And you can just imagine what that does to the 30,000 or so people at the stadium where yesterday the Red Cross finally brought in some relief, food items, non-food items, blankets, that kind of stuff, to bring a little relief to the suffering people of Liberia.
But just imagine for a moment, Carol, there are over 100,000 displaced Liberians here in the capital alone. They're all going to be looking for relief. The relief that you just saw on TV right in those pictures, that's going to last maybe two weeks at most. They're going to need more relief and they're going to need it sooner and they're going to need it sooner than later.
In terms of troop deployments or possible troop deployments, on our way over yesterday, we passed by neighboring Sierra Leone. And on the tarmac at the airport we did see a U.S. C-130 on the tarmac, along with three Black Hawk helicopters. Now, those could possibly be what they call the fast track team, the one based in Spain that's usually used for embassy evacuations around the world. They are now more -- they are now closer to Liberia. If anything should happen, if the rebels should decide to attack the capital before the cease -- and break the cease-fire, then these forces could possibly be deployed to come and secure the embassy perimeter.
So we did see some kind or presence on the ground. It's about a 45 minute hop from Freetown to here in Monrovia.
So there is some movement, but people here are hoping that peacekeepers are able to come sooner than later -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, we can certainly understand why.
Back to the stadium for just a second for those in the audience that don't know. Literally thousands of people are hiding under the stands there and they've been holed up there for quite some time, haven't they?
KOINANGE: Absolutely. More than four or five weeks now, Carol. And you should see the conditions. We've been on the ground there. Little kids just hiding underneath the stands, parents looking for food, any kind of food, whether it's berries or leaves, anything that they can get. That relief you saw, that was welcomed relief. And people are hoping that more of that comes. That's why they're hoping humanitarian workers come, peacekeepers come, create some kind of security so that they could move around freely and look for food in that way. Otherwise they'll be stuck in that stadium for god knows how long and it could get even more miserable the longer they stay there -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I can't imagine the conditions there.
Jeff Koinange, thanks very much.
We'll get back to you in the next hour of DAYBREAK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 15, 2003 - 05:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: No word yet on if U.S. troops will be sent to Liberia. President Bush discussed it with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan during a White House meeting. The president says he still hasn't decided to commit American forces to the war ravaged West African nation, but he is ruling out any long-term peacekeeping role there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Any commitment we have would be limited in size and limited in tenure. Our job would be to help facilitate an ECOWAS presence, which would then be converted into a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: That ECOWAS presence President Bush referred to is regional troops from the Economic Community of West African States.
And those nations pledged 1,500 soldiers to a peacekeeping effort, but it's the arrival of American soldiers that many believe is essential to ending the conflict.
CNN's Jeff Koinange is in the Liberian capital of Monrovia.
He joins us live now -- good morning.
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, Carol.
I heard you talking about hurricane season and the weather a couple of minutes ago. If you look behind me right now, it is another miserable day in Monrovia. It has been raining all night and raining all morning and it's like this. The locals here tell us it's going to be like this up until September. It's miserable. It's wet. And you can just imagine what that does to the 30,000 or so people at the stadium where yesterday the Red Cross finally brought in some relief, food items, non-food items, blankets, that kind of stuff, to bring a little relief to the suffering people of Liberia.
But just imagine for a moment, Carol, there are over 100,000 displaced Liberians here in the capital alone. They're all going to be looking for relief. The relief that you just saw on TV right in those pictures, that's going to last maybe two weeks at most. They're going to need more relief and they're going to need it sooner and they're going to need it sooner than later.
In terms of troop deployments or possible troop deployments, on our way over yesterday, we passed by neighboring Sierra Leone. And on the tarmac at the airport we did see a U.S. C-130 on the tarmac, along with three Black Hawk helicopters. Now, those could possibly be what they call the fast track team, the one based in Spain that's usually used for embassy evacuations around the world. They are now more -- they are now closer to Liberia. If anything should happen, if the rebels should decide to attack the capital before the cease -- and break the cease-fire, then these forces could possibly be deployed to come and secure the embassy perimeter.
So we did see some kind or presence on the ground. It's about a 45 minute hop from Freetown to here in Monrovia.
So there is some movement, but people here are hoping that peacekeepers are able to come sooner than later -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, we can certainly understand why.
Back to the stadium for just a second for those in the audience that don't know. Literally thousands of people are hiding under the stands there and they've been holed up there for quite some time, haven't they?
KOINANGE: Absolutely. More than four or five weeks now, Carol. And you should see the conditions. We've been on the ground there. Little kids just hiding underneath the stands, parents looking for food, any kind of food, whether it's berries or leaves, anything that they can get. That relief you saw, that was welcomed relief. And people are hoping that more of that comes. That's why they're hoping humanitarian workers come, peacekeepers come, create some kind of security so that they could move around freely and look for food in that way. Otherwise they'll be stuck in that stadium for god knows how long and it could get even more miserable the longer they stay there -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I can't imagine the conditions there.
Jeff Koinange, thanks very much.
We'll get back to you in the next hour of DAYBREAK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
