A CHARITY worker rescued from intense fighting in war-ravaged Liberia, says the end of the crisis is far from near.

As reported last month in the Evening Advertiser, Brian Barber, of Lydiard Millicent, was evacuated from the capital Monrovia scene of much of the fiercest fighting by crack French forces as rebel factions and President Charles Taylor's troops battled for control.

As fighting continues to intensify, George Bush last week ordered a limited number of troops to the Liberian coast in readiness for possible action.

Three US warships, led by the amphibious assault vessel Iwo Jima, are expected off the Liberian coast this week.

But Mr Barber, 55, who spent three months installing radio equipment in the African state with Glasgow-based Mercy Corps, claims the United States is reluctant to get involved in the escalating crisis.

"In reality if they go in they will be up against 10-year-olds armed with AK-47s," he said.

"The soldiers could ultimately be asked to kill them. You can't really blame them for not wanting to steam in."

General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, last week warned the Pentagon that a rapid US intervention risks a repeat of the Mogadishu bloodbath in Somalia, which resulted in 18 US troops being killed in 1993.

Although Mr Barber's colleagues are now out of the danger zone, many of the charity's local workforce are still there, caught up in the violent confrontations, that have claimed hundreds of lives in the last week.

"I have been phoning our local members every day via cell phone," he said. "So far we haven't had any problems contacting them although the main landlines are down.

"They tell me that things are really bad. A mortar landed just outside the Mercy Corps offices recently.

"Luckily nobody was hurt.

"A lot of their homes have been destroyed or completely looted so they are living in the Mercy Corps residence where the foreign workers used to live.

"It seems to be slightly safer for them there.

"But until a couple of days ago they couldn't venture outside as it was too dangerous."

Looting seems to be adding to the already desperate situation.

Radio equipment and supplies have been stolen from the charity's offices.

The former BBC Wiltshire Sound presenter believes peace will not return until the corruption ends.

He said: "A presenter on the government-owned Liberian Broadcast Services station asked the government's assistant communication minister why it was that you see young girls driving around in new four by fours that cost over £40,000 and the Government cannot pay the presenters' salaries. The minister couldn't find an answer.

"Until there are free and fair elections things will not improve and the fighting will continue."

Mr Barber is no stranger to the world's trouble spots. His charity work has taken him to Libya, Oman, and Rwanda where a million people were butchered in just 100 days.

"Until you actually see decomposing bodies with their clothes rotting and blood-stained machetes lying next to them, you don't realise how evil human beings can be," he added.