SECRETARY-GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGES LIBERIAN PRESIDENT'S ROLE IN PEACEKEEPERS RELEASE

Press Release
SG/SM/7398
AFR/229

SECRETARY-GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGES LIBERIAN PRESIDENT'S ROLE IN PEACEKEEPERS RELEASE

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for Secretary- General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General would like to acknowledge the important role played by President Charles Taylor of Liberia in the release of detained United Nations peacekeepers in Sierra Leone. One hundred and thirty-nine peacekeepers are in Liberia today and will soon be brought back into the mission area in Sierra Leone.

The Secretary-General will shortly be talking with President Taylor, who has been tasked by West African Governments to facilitate the release of the United Nations detainees.

He is gratified by the progress made thus far and will encourage President Taylor to press on until the roughly 350 remaining detainees held by the Revolutionary United Front are freed and their weapons and equipment recovered.

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