Former President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings left Accra on Monday for Monrovia, Liberia to participate in a five-day ECOWAS summit on peace processes in West Africa, which opened Tuesday. Dubbed "Two Decades of Peace Processes in West Africa - Achievements, Failures, Lessons" the conference is bringing together major stakeholders involved in peace processes in the sub-region since 1989 when fighters of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor invaded Liberia and started the devastating civil war, which triggered a similar war in neighbouring Sierra Leone. The conference will subject peace agreements signed in the region to rigorous analysis, identify what has worked, what has not worked and suggest corrective measures. It will also explore new frameworks for cooperation at all levels in response to conflicts in the region and explore the feasibility of establishing a West Africa specific framework for linking conflict response to peace building and peace consolidation. Former President Rawlings will contribute to two panel discussions on "Violent conflicts in West Africa: Military and diplomatic interventions" and "An overview of ECOMOG'S interventions in the Civil Wars in Africa". Other contributors will be Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Gambian President Sir Dawda Jawara, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, General Arnold Quainoo, former ECOMOG Commander and General Adetunji Olurin, former deputy ECOMOG Commander and former Executive Secretaries of ECOWAS Abass Bundu and Lansana Kouyate. The former Ghanaian President was instrumental in the initiation and implementation of the peace processes that eventually led to the end of the protracted civil war in Liberia. Ghana also played host to thousands of Liberian refugees during the period. Flt. Lt. Rawlings was instrumental in the establishment of the ECOWAS military intervention force in Liberia ECOMOG and also presided over the brokering of the Akosombo Accord and Accra Acceptance and Accession Agreement in December 1994 as well as the Abuja Agreement in August 1995. Source: jjrawlings.wordpress.com