Sharpton: Blacks should help decide if U.S. sends peacekeepers to Liberia

[Khephra]

(edit: "whether" changed to "if" so the title would fit)

July 20, 2003, 6:24 PM EDT


ACCRA, Ghana -- Black Americans should help U.S. officials decide whether to send peacekeeping troops to Liberia, Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton said Sunday in Ghana, where negotiators are working on a peace plan despite fresh fighting in the war-torn West African nation founded by freed American slaves.

President Bush is considering whether to send troops to bolster a promised West African force that Liberians hope will end more than a decade of fighting in the country.

"The African American community can have a lot of impact on what position will come from the U.S. government based on where we want to go and recommend," said Sharpton, a civil rights leader who plans to run in the 2004 U.S. presidential elections.

Sharpton is leading a delegation of prominent black Americans, including Princeton African-American studies scholar Cornel West, to Ghana's capital, where Liberian peace talks are being held.

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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--liberia-sharpton0720jul20,0,6652693.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire