| The military commander of the LURD rebel movement has pledged to help recover vehicles stolen from the United Nations and relief agencies in Liberia and has promised aid workers free access to LURD-controlled areas of the country. The assurances were given by General Aliyu Sheriff, chief of staff of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement, to Ross Mountain, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Liberia, at a meeting on Thursday. The return of looted vehicles was one of the key demands made by Mountain at the meeting in Tubmanburg, a town 68 km northwest of the capital Monrovia, which serves as LURD's frontline military headquarters. Ramin Rafirasme, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN on Friday that his agency had lost at least 20 trucks and other vehicles to looters and it would be unable to distribute food effectively without them. Astrid van Genderen Stort, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), said about 20 UNHCR vehicles had been stolen, including two buses. An IRIN correspondent who accompanied the UN team said the town was full of vehicles looted in Monrovia, including two recently repainted trucks that appeared to have been taken from WFP. |