The reported arrests follow an incursion by dissidents into Liberia from areas bordering Ivory Coast, Guinea and Liberia. The Liberian Government has accused Guinea, not Abidjan. The dissidents' spokesman told the BBC that they were from Nimba and had launched an offensive to remove Taylor because of his abuses. Although the Government claims to have beaten back the insurgents, there are no independent reports. The Government has banned independent reports of insurgencies.
Sources say fighting is continuing.
The Ivorians are arresting innocent people for Charles Taylor. They are doing to us what they did to us during the war. Because of destabilization schemes reportedly hatched in Liberia, Liberians have been subjected to arrests in a number of West African countries, including Guinea, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Some Liberians based in the US have begun organizing to influence the Ivorian embassy in Washington for ending the reported clampdown. But he must realize that Ivory Coast cannot be an island free from Liberia's fire.