Excerpts from Secretary Powell's Interview with Reuters Regarding Liberia

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, on Liberia, in your interview with the Washington Times you gave some reasons for intervening in Liberia, and yet there seems to be a certain level of hesitation in the Administration to do so. How would you respond to Africans who, especially after the visit of the President, see this hesitation as a sign of U.S. indifference to them?

SECRETARY POWELL: If the United States was indifferent, we wouldn't be supporting ECOWAS. I would not have American representatives in Africa today working with ECOWAS both on the political dimension of the Liberian problem as well as the military dimension. An advance team from ECOWAS is heading into Monrovia this afternoon. It is on its way now. We have American participation in that. We have American coordination ongoing. A Marine Expeditionary Unit is on the way to the region.

But we have always said from the beginning that it can't just be U.S. support, the U.S. has to support ECOWAS. ECOWAS is in the lead. It is ECOWAS itself that said it should be in the lead, and it asked for U.S. support. Whether there will also be a need for U.S. boots on the ground, so to speak, that remains to be seen and it is a decision that will be made in due course by the President.

Right now, we are working very, very hard to get the Nigerian battalions into Liberia as quickly as we can. One, as you know, is now preparing itself to leave from Freetown in Sierra Leone, and I hope that in the very near future it will begin to arrive in Liberia.

It is also predicated on the departure of Charles Taylor. Charles Taylor's departure is an essential part of the strategy that we have worked out with the United Nations and with ECOWAS to resolve this situation.

The humanitarian situation is getting worse, and so we are anxious to move quickly. Assistant Secretary Kansteiner, my Assistant Secretary for Africa, is in the region working on the political and military aspects of this, and military planners from the European Command are there as well as contractors, American contractors, who are gearing up to provide support to the African troops who are going in.

QUESTION: Can you just explain the timing on that again? What exactly -- what can not happen before Charles Taylor departs?

SECRETARY POWELL: Until Charles Taylor departs, the strategy that we have worked out is, upon departure of Charles Taylor, we would expect ECOWAS forces to be present. Whether it is the same day, a day before, a day after, that is a synchronization issue that is, frankly, a detail, but an important detail.

But we are looking for a permissive environment that will be created by the departure of Mr. Taylor. He has said he will depart upon the arrival of peacekeeping forces, and we expect him to meet that commitment.

While waiting for the forces to arrive, we are also pressing hard for a ceasefire. This has been a difficult issue. The different sides say from day to day and hour to hour that they are agreeing to a ceasefire, but it doesn't quite hold. And so we are pressing hard today for all sides to agree to a ceasefire once again.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, one quick question on Algeria. Earlier this month, the two jailed peace leaders, Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj, were released by the Algerian authorities, but they have been barred from any kind of political activity. Do you think the Algerian authorities should let them take part in political activities?

SECRETARY POWELL: I really don't have a view on that.

QUESTION: Just to go back quickly to Liberia, is a deployment possible without a ceasefire holding?

SECRETARY POWELL: I can't say. It's -- you know I'm not in command of the Nigerian forces or the ECOWAS forces. I think the hope is and the expectation is and the planning assumption is that the environment will be permissive; in other words, it won't be an opposed arrival. Once they are on the ground, and with the departure of Charles Taylor, it will be in everyone's interest at that point to stop the fighting, if there is any remaining fighting taking place, and get on with bringing back NGOs and humanitarian efforts and United Nations organizations to help these desperate people in need with clean water, fixing the water plant, doing something about the delivery of food. There is food in the area, but it is impossible to deliver it under the current circumstances. That ought to be our first priority, and that will come about with the departure of Mr. Taylor and with the arrival of the peacekeeping forces.

QUESTION: Thank you very much for your time.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you. [More of the Interview with Reuters]