A senior rebel official has been appointed as speaker of Liberia's new transitional assembly, set up under a peace deal meant to end nearly 14 years of war in the West African country. George Dweh, a founding member of the main rebel faction Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), was elected with 49 votes, including those of most of his former government foes, lawmakers said. Six lawmakers voted against him and two abstained. Ahead of the vote, human rights campaigners and members of civil society groups had expressed concern over his candidacy as parliament speaker, accusing him of brutality during fighting which crippled a country founded by freed American slaves. Mr Dweh fought for a rebel group known as ULIMO during a savage seven-year civil war in the 1990s in which 200,000 people died. Former warlord Charles Taylor emerged as the strongest faction leader in that war and was elected president in 1997 but two years later LURD rebels took up arms against him. After his appointment, Mr Dweh called on Liberians to "let bygones be bygones".
| "All the victims will still be dead, but we're not. Let's count ourselves lucky and move on to the next crisis..." |
"This legislator will not be a factional one. It will represent the interests of the people," he said of the new assembly, in which the three warring factions have 12 representatives each. |