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[This article has been excerpted.]

LAGOS, Nigeria (PANA) – Nigerian Defence Spokesman Brig. Gen. Fred Chijuka says…the West African Peace Monitoring Force, ECOMOG, should be given orders to “enforce peace” in Liberia, if it is to end the lawlessness there. “ECOMOG is hamstrung because it is peacekeeping in its operations,” he said.

He told journalists Tuesday in Lagos…the peacekeeping mandate had enabled rival militia to shoot, loot and kill at will.”The fighting over there in Liberia is not one that would make anyone happy, especially with the human and other resources that had gone into salvaging the country,” he said.

In his second statement in as many days he said of the fighting “Enough is Enough!” Chijuka said until the current factional fighting erupted April 6, everyone had thought the Liberian situation had passed the stage of “a stiff military face-off.”

Liberians, he said, should realise…countries helping them were losing their patience and…such a change of attitude could be “dangerous.” The warring factions have signed and broken or violated all 13 peace accords on their country since the war began December 24 1989.

Chijuka spoke in the wake of Monday’s statement by Nigerian Foreign Minister Tom Ikimi…the country intended to review its role in ECOMOG.

Nigeria, with 8,500 troops, provides the largest contingent of the force, slighlty than 10,500 men. Other members are Ghana and Guinea with 1,000 men each with nuch smaller units from Burkina Faso, Gambia and Sierra Leone.

The 16-nation Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, sent the force to Monrovia in 1990 when rival militias fought for power in the capital. The force drove out the fighters and evacuated tens of thousands of desperate civilians.

Diplomats said Wednesday in Lagos…the situation in Monrovia remained tense with militia of the National Patriotic Fornt, headed by Council of State member Charles Taylor, closing in on the Barclay Military Barracks, which had become a hide-out ofRoosevelt Johnson, the deposed ULIMO-J faction leader.

The council’s attempt to arrest Johnson two week ago and try him for murder sparked the current crisis.

Johnson resisted his Khran ethnic kinsmen of the Liberia Peace Council and the Armed Forces of Liberia joining forces with him to beat off rival factions. To diffuse the situation, Nigerian Foreign Minister Ikimi has been quoted as saying the country was prepared to offer Johnson political asylum.

Amid serious threat to security and unspecified casualties from the fighting, a United States Department of State official…reported some 30 Americans missing in Monrovia, where thousands of people have been made homeless.

The official, Lyn Davies, was quoted Tuesday as saying efforts were under way to locate the Americans and evacuate them. Another U.S. State Department official, who did not want to be identified, told PANA Tuesday…the pace of evacation had slowed. The United States Information Agency Tuesday quoted Davies as saying…the U.S. had brought out 1,795 people out of Monrovia, 306 of whom were Americans.

Speaking form the United States, an official to the U.S. Department of Defence Public Affairs Africa Desk, Lt. Col. Michael Wood, told PANA Tuesday…the U.S. Naval Ships Guam, Portland and Trenton were amphibious ready vessels heading for Liberia. These are ships which can launch and retrieve amphibious vehicles, carry machinery and troops. The USS Conolly and USNS Big Horn are also on their way. He described the deployment as “precautionary.”

The U.S. Embassy in Monrovia is trying to provide food and water to some 15,000 refugees who fled the fighting and sought sanctuary in the embassy compound.

Hundreds of civilians, who had sought protection in the Barclay barracks, where Johnson was hiding, fled in panic of the renewed assault. The attack came despite agreement on a cease-fire between Taylor and Johnson.

Meanwhile, an outbreak of cholera among refugees is reported and witnesses said…about 10 people died each day in the barracks where an estimated 20,000 people have taken refuge.

The Liberian war started when Taylor invaded from Cote D’Ivoire to topple President Samuel Doe. At least 150,000 people have been killed. Halt the country’s estimated 2.5 million people have been made refugees. Doe was killed in September 1990 by Taylor’s rival Prince Yormie Johnson, now exiled in Nigeria. Liberia was founded in 1847 by freed slaves from the United States.