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CNN Live At Daybreak
Liberia in Crisis: Awaiting the Marines
Aired August 13, 2003 - 06:10 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: Pleading for peace in Liberia and the U.S. may deliver. We have word the Bush administration will allow more troops to go ashore.
Live to Monrovia and Gaven Morris.
How many troops are we talking about -- Gaven?
GAVEN MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we think less than 100, but the exact number is to be determined depending on how the pullback of lured (ph) rebels from the city of Monrovia goes tomorrow. They are due to pull back tomorrow after an agreement brokered by the U.S. yesterday. I'll get to that in a minute, but first this deployment of Marines really will take place to support the West African troops that are on the ground. There will be liaison, there will be advisors, also some medical experts and some engineering experts that will again advise on what needs to be done to get this country back on track.
Now this agreement that I was talking about to free up the port yesterday very much brokered by the U.S., the ambassador and John Blaney and General Turner was here. He is the commander of the forces that will be coming ashore. They brokered this deal. That means at noon tomorrow the rebels will pull out of the port and that will allow humanitarian assistance to start flowing in through that port.
The U.N.'s top humanitarian assistance coordinator is in town just for a day. Carolyn McAskie spoke to CNN this morning and here's what she had to say about the priorities.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROLYN MCASKIE, U.N. RELIEF: You are looking at a population that is extremely distressed. We hope to, with the good news of the port opening, we hope to get food distributions going in a couple of days. And -- but there are so many other issues to address, particularly the state of health of people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORRIS: So that's the humanitarian priorities. But one piece of disappointing news and that is that another rebel group, the Model Rebels (ph), yesterday struck up fighting to the south of the city on the road to Monrovia airport. Now West African peacekeepers did go down there yesterday to try and sort that out. We just don't know what is going on there at the moment and whether that situation has subdued -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Gaven Morris bringing us up to date from Monrovia, Liberia this morning.
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 August 13, 2003 - 06:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Pleading for peace in Liberia and the U.S. may deliver. We have word the Bush administration will allow more troops to go ashore.
Live to Monrovia and Gaven Morris.
How many troops are we talking about -- Gaven?
GAVEN MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we think less than 100, but the exact number is to be determined depending on how the pullback of lured (ph) rebels from the city of Monrovia goes tomorrow. They are due to pull back tomorrow after an agreement brokered by the U.S. yesterday. I'll get to that in a minute, but first this deployment of Marines really will take place to support the West African troops that are on the ground. There will be liaison, there will be advisors, also some medical experts and some engineering experts that will again advise on what needs to be done to get this country back on track.
Now this agreement that I was talking about to free up the port yesterday very much brokered by the U.S., the ambassador and John Blaney and General Turner was here. He is the commander of the forces that will be coming ashore. They brokered this deal. That means at noon tomorrow the rebels will pull out of the port and that will allow humanitarian assistance to start flowing in through that port.
The U.N.'s top humanitarian assistance coordinator is in town just for a day. Carolyn McAskie spoke to CNN this morning and here's what she had to say about the priorities.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROLYN MCASKIE, U.N. RELIEF: You are looking at a population that is extremely distressed. We hope to, with the good news of the port opening, we hope to get food distributions going in a couple of days. And -- but there are so many other issues to address, particularly the state of health of people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORRIS: So that's the humanitarian priorities. But one piece of disappointing news and that is that another rebel group, the Model Rebels (ph), yesterday struck up fighting to the south of the city on the road to Monrovia airport. Now West African peacekeepers did go down there yesterday to try and sort that out. We just don't know what is going on there at the moment and whether that situation has subdued -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Gaven Morris bringing us up to date from Monrovia, Liberia this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
