July 23, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1424

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ACCRA, July 22: Liberian rebels fighting to oust President Charles Taylor announced here on Tuesday that they have refused to sign a peace agreement drafted by west African mediators.

“We are not happy with the draft, we’re not going to sign,” said George Dweh, a vice president of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy rebel group. “It is a draft that needs to be modified. The draft seeks to leave out the main players who bring peace to Liberia.”

LURD and a second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), faulted the plan for failing to propose three vice presidencies in a power-sharing transitional government for the west African state.

“The draft seeks to leave out the main players who bring peace to Liberia,” Dweh said, adding that the rebels were “now working on our own proposal.”

“The document has a lot that we do not agree with,” said MODEL representative Tia Slanger. “The idea that shall not be part of the executive is not acceptable to us.”

He added: “We agree that the president of the transitional government should come from political parties and civil society, but there should be three vice presidents, one for the government of Liberia, one for LURD and one for MODEL.”

Nigerian former president Abdulsalami Abubakar, who is leading the mediation in Accra, said the peace talks, which began here in early June, would continue.

“We are going to continue with the peace talks, we are going to meet the groups one by one to listen to their observations,” Abubakar said. Earlier on Tuesday a LURD official said their leader Sekou Damate Conneh had ordered a ceasefire but that it could not be implemented because government forces were engaging withdrawing rebels.—AFP