Ghana may reject refugees

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- (AP) -- When a leaky ship carrying thousands of weary Liberian refugees pulls into Ghana, the captain may be forced once again to limp back out to sea.

Like the Ivory Coast authorities who turned away the freighter that left the embattled Liberian capital a week ago, Ghana wants little to do with the 3,000 to 4,000 refugees on board, some of whom are suffering from severe diarrhea.

Medical workers fear the diarrhea outbreak is a sign of cholera, which is often fatal if not immediately treated.

``We don't want to take any more refugees,'' Ghanaian Foreign Minister Obed Asamoah said Saturday. He expressed concern that many of the refugees on the Bulk Challenge freighter were fighters who were responsible for destroying the Liberian capital Monrovia in a month of bloodshed and vandalism.

``We have had enough refugees,'' he said. ``Especially we don't want those who are combatants.''

Ghanaian authorities will board the boat when it arrives sometime this weekend to screen refugees who have medical needs, but the others will be forced to remain on board. He said Ghanaians, foreigners and Liberian workers for United Nations and relief agencies would be allowed to disembark.

Phil Doherty, head of the Liberian mission for Doctors Without Borders, said the relief agency had sent a small boat with a doctor and nurse to follow the Bulk Challenge to Ghana, and would demand that a doctor be allowed to help with the medical screenings.

He said there was little water or food on the freighter and only one toilet. The refugees, he said, had been reduced to drinking sea water.

``If there is cholera on board, under those circumstances, those people have a very poor expectancy,'' Doherty said. Cholera bacteria spreads rapidly through contaminated food and water, and causes severe diarrhea, vomiting and muscle cramps.

Charles Taylor, head of one of Liberia's main warring factions and member of the ruling Council of State, said Saturday the refugees would be returned to Monrovia and taken to rural towns. But he did not say how.

Panicked Liberians fleeing a month of brutal fighting in Monrovia packed the Ghana-bound freighter May 4. The ship limped into the Ivory Coast port of San Pedro on Monday, having taken on six feet of water.

Some repairs were made Thursday, but relief officials did not feel the freighter was seaworthy when it was forced to set sail that night.

Ivory Coast has been flooded with 350,000 Liberians who have fled across the border since Taylor launched the war six years ago. Tens of thousands of Liberians live in refugee camps in Ghana and other West African countries.

A cease-fire called by West African leaders last week appeared to have taken hold in Monrovia, although hundreds of people trying to return to their homes turned back when they were fired at as they attempted to cross the two main bridges into the city center.

More than 150,000 Liberians have died in six years of civil war, half the population of 2.9 million has been left homeless, and a half-dozen warring factions have emerged.