The bishops said the warring factions, which last week walked out of a meeting on disarmament with the U.N. Mission in Liberia, should realize that the Liberian people have suffered enormously from their «callous dehumanizing behavior, violating their fundamental rights, killing, injuring, raping and sodomizing» them, the Catholic Information Service for Africa reported.
The bishops also blamed the warring factions for «looting and destroying our country for selfish motives,» and called them to return immediately to the disarmament talks.
The bishops appealed to Liberians to stand up peacefully in protest against the factions. «All of us have a co-responsibility for the safety and security of our country,» they said.
A contingent of U.N. peacekeepers is in Liberia, and a program of disarmament should get under way within days.
The Missionary Service News Agency reported that the rebels have put a series of conditions to disarmament, including the allocation of posts of responsibility in the present provisional administration in Monrovia, established following the peace pacts signed in August.
