http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30345928.htmUNITED NATIONS, July 30 (Reuters) - In an impassioned plea to the Bush administration, the Liberian Roman Catholic archbishop said on Wednesday the United States had a "moral imperative" to help his country before the death toll mounted.
Archbishop Michael Francis Kpakala spoke to reporters after meeting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to thank him for pushing for an African and U.S. peacekeeping force to quell the turmoil in Liberia's civil war.
"Not tomorrow but right now someone should come to our aid," he said.
The archbishop recalled that the United States sent three warships to Liberia in 1990 to evacuate American citizens when warlords attacked the capital, Monrovia. The ships, with 4,000 Marines, left in February 1991, without any troops "stepping onshore while we were being slaughtered," he said.
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