1st wave of peace troops arrives

The force of West African soldiers will eventually number more than 3,000.
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) -- The first West African forces arrived in Liberia today, launching an international mission to end 14 years of carnage and oversee departure of warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor.
Nigerian soldiers in green camouflage and flak vests leapt out of the first U.N. helicopter as it settled onto the tarmac at Liberia's main airport, outside the country's besieged capital.
Machine guns at the ready, they crouched, taking up defensive positions on the landing strip.
"We know everyone is expecting us, and we hope to live up to their expectations," said Col. Theophilus Tawiah of Ghana, the freshly assembled force's chief of staff.
In Monrovia, residents near the city's embattled port heard cheers and watched flares go up over the war-ruined city -- rebels, celebrating arrival of the West African troops.
Authorities said a total of 192 men and 33,000 pounds of equipment would deploy today. The men are the first wave of a promised 3,250-strong West African deployment, to be followed within months by a U.N. peacekeeping force.
Marines offshore
Two of three U.S. warships full of Marines arrived off the country's Atlantic Ocean coast, waiting to support the peacekeepers. It was unclear whether the U.S. Marines will ever go ashore.
Allan Doss, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's representative in Sierra Leone, saw off the first troops from neighboring Sierra Leone earlier today.
"I wish you God speed and well in this historic mission to Liberia," Doss said. "The people of Liberia have suffered a lot, for too long. They need your help."
In all, 675 Nigerian soldiers and 18 of their officers assembled on the airfield to take part in the first deployment.
West African leaders have promised the force to quell fighting in Liberia, where two months of rebel sieges on the capital have killed more than 1,000 civilians outright and all but cut off the refugee-crowded city of more than 1.3 million from food and water.
The Nigerians, the first arrivals, are leaving a U.N. mission in Sierra Leone, where large-scale military intervention by Britain, neighboring Guinea and the United Nations helped end a vicious 10-year civil war.
'Difficult task'
Gen. Daniel Opande, commander of the U.N. force in Sierra Leone, spoke of "the very difficult task to try to bring Liberia back to normalcy."
"We shall follow what you have to do, and I am sure you will succeed," Opande said, drawing three cheers from the men.
Soon after the first two helicopters took off, troops loaded the first equipment -- rumbling an armored personnel carrier up to another aircraft.
Separate flights also were planned at another Sierra Leone airfield for equipment.
On Sunday, the leader of the peacekeeping force for Liberia sought to temper high expectations among the country's suffering people, saying the first troops would only secure the airport on the capital's outskirts.
"We are going in with as much troops as possible," Nigerian Brig. Gen. Festus Okonkwo, the force's commander, told reporters late Sunday. "We know that the situation is bad in and around Monrovia."
The airport is about a 45-minute drive on a government-held road from the capital, where fighting has raged daily between Taylor's fighters and rebels battling to overthrow him.
On the road to the airport, aid workers today were preparing mass graves, readying them for the bodies of 70-80 people killed in fighting but left unclaimed at the morgue at Monrovia's main hospital.
In Monrovia, residents and refugees bought white T-shirts and gathered white cloths to prepare a welcome for the peacekeepers. It was unclear whether today's arrivals would even leave the airport, however.
In Rome, the leader of the insurgent group behind the siege promised cooperation with the peace troops, and renewed pledges to turn over the embattled port, with its warehouses, to forces once they were on the ground.
"We are going to work with them," said Sekou Conneh, in Rome for talks with an international mediating community. "They should be able to provide security for civilians, then we can withdraw."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.