Liberia: Troops on stand-by

2003-08-11 12:43

Monrovia - Nigerian and South African forces guarded the executive mansion of Liberia's embattled President Charles Taylor with automatic weapons and armored vehicles on Monday as the war-ravaged country counted down the hours before his promised resignation.

Dozens of Nigerian peacekeepers arrived downtown from their airport base overnight to establish checkpoints near the building - without electricity and low on fuel, like the rest of the rebel-besieged capital.

Many of the undisciplined, often-drugged Taylor fighters that previously patrolled the area appeared to have slipped away into the city with their weapons.

Inside the building, about a dozen South African soldiers surveyed the gilded, velvet-draped room where Taylor has promised to hand power to his vice-president, Moses Blah, at one minute before noon.

The South Africans, part of a 100-strong security detail, then took up positions elsewhere in the building to ensure the safety of President Thabo Mbeki, expected to attend the ceremony along with a few other African heads of state.

Outside, Monrovia's beleaguered people cheered the Nigerian peacekeepers - part of a vanguard peace force meant to build to 3 250 West African soldiers - but reserved celebrations over the former warlord's resignation until it was official.

"I can hardly believe it. He has brought too much suffering on the Liberian people," said Henry Philips, 38, a former security official. "His absence is better than his presence."

Two months of rebel sieges have left well over 1 000 civilians dead in the capital, as insurgents and Taylor's forces duelled with the city of 1.3 million as its battlefield. The war has left Taylor controlling little but downtown, referred to derisively by rebels as Taylor's "Federal Republic of Central Monrovia".

At the request of the United States and West African leaders, Taylor promised on Friday to quit power on Monday - but he has hedged or outright reneged on the same vow earlier.

Taylor made no apologies in a Sunday farewell address to the nation - asking only forgiveness from any he may have wronged in what have been his years of carnage.

He compared his departure from the presidency to Jesus submitting himself to the Romans. He accused the United States of arming Liberia's rebels, calling it an "American war" and suggesting it was motivated by US eagerness for Liberia's gold, diamonds and other reserves.

"If I were the problem - which you know and I know I'm not - I would...become the sacrificial lamb," Taylor said. "I would become the whipping boy that you should live."

In Washington, a senior Bush administration official said he wasn't aware of a claim by Taylor about the United States and the rebels in Liberia, but that it would be false to claim the United States was arming or funding rebels.

"They can call off their dogs now." Taylor said of the United States. "We can have peace."

At least three West African heads of state and Mbeki were expected for what Taylor's regime was trying to organise into an hours-long formal resignation ceremony.

Government officials said the ceremony had been moved to the presidential palace since the orginally planned venue lay too close to the urban front lines - and rebel guns.

Steel blinds guarded windows against assassination attempts - like the 1996 try on Taylor's life in the same building that killed two aides.

International aid agencies estimate virtually all of Liberia's roughly 3 million people have been chased from their home by war, at one time or another, under Taylor.

Taylor launched Liberia's 14 years of near-constant conflict with a 1989-1996 insurgency. He was elected president in 1997 and rebels took up arms against him two years later.

Taylor's ragtag forces, paid by looting, are accused by rights groups and Liberia's people of routine raping, robbing, torture, forced labor and summary killings. Rebels, to a lesser extent so far, likewise are accused of abuse.

Taylor has accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria, but he has also hedged on when he will go, although many hope it could come as early as Monday. He has said that he would like to remain in politics.

Perhaps crucially, Taylor made no direct mention in his Sunday address of his promise to leave Liberia.

Closing his speech, he declared: "I will always remember you wherever I am, and I say, God willing, I will be back."

- AP