Bush Urges Senegal to Intervene in Liberia Civil War

President Bush urged the leader of Senegal on Tuesday to dispatch a military force to Liberia and agreed to help pay its costs in the hope of ending the bloody, prolonged civil war there.

The new plan to forge peace from chaos in Liberia rests on the belief that rebel leader Charles Taylor might agree to halt fighting if a truce were guaranteed by Senegalese troops.

The Taylor-controlled guerrilla force is the most powerful of the factions that have continued to battle peacekeeping troops from three other West African countries, including Nigeria. But with Taylor expressing deep mistrust of the Nigerian-dominated force, U.S. officials hope a new role by Senegal might end what its president called the “heartbreaking situation” in Liberia.

The unusual encouragement by Bush of the Senegalese military action came as Senegal’s President Abdou Diouf warned in a White House visit that the 21-month civil war in Liberia “has gone on much too long” and has cost tens of thousands of lives, said Herman J. Cohen, assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

Cohen declined to estimate the cost of U.S. support for a Senegalese intervention. But he said Bush told Diouf that the Administration would forgive $42 million in agricultural debt owed by Senegal to the United States.

In an earlier ceremony, Bush described Diouf as “one of our closest friends in Africa” and mourned the 93 Senegalese troops killed in a plane crash in Saudi Arabia last March as a casualty of “the noblest cause.” The soldiers were part of a 500-man contingent sent by Senegal to join the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq. Bush said their deaths meant that Senegal paid “proportionately the highest price of any coalition partner in freeing Kuwait from naked aggression.”

Diouf now heads the 16-member Economic Community of West African States, under whose auspices the 7,000-man peacekeeping force was deployed to Liberia more than a year ago. A truce was instituted last September, but fierce fighting has continued, and the task force now serves largely to protect the capital, Monrovia, and an interim government headed by Amos Sawyer.

The rest of the country lies behind lines controlled by Taylor, a guerrilla leader who played a key role in the overthrow last September of Liberian President Samuel K. Doe, who was slain.

Taylor, who proclaimed himself president, has refused to recognize the interim government and has been sharply critical of the task force, contending that it is prejudiced against him.

But troops from Senegal have never been part of that contingent, and Administration officials said they hope their new involvement will satisfy Taylor’s stated willingness to surrender to a “more neutral force.” Cohen said Bush and Diouf have agreed that the civil war remains, for now, “an African problem,” in which the United Nations should not intervene.

With West African leaders scheduled to meet again on Liberia next week in Ivory Coast, it appeared that no immediate moves by Senegal were likely.

Such an operation’s cost could also prove an obstacle, U.S. officials said, because of Bush’s insistence that other nations join in sharing the burden.