US help 'another promise'

2003-07-25 21:20

Monrovia - Shocked by the bloodiest barrage in days upon Liberia's besieged capital, Monrovia's trapped people took first news on Friday of the long-hoped-for US peace deployment with doubt - even bitterness, that help came after so high a toll.

Radio broadcasts of US President George W Bush's order of ships and troops to Liberia's coast came as refugee families gathered broken bodies of children and other dead and wounded, victims of a daybreak mortar attack that killed at least 12 and wounded more than 150.

"Why so late, when people are dying?" Momo Barley asked in the streets around the US Embassy, the densely populated, rocky hilltop neighbourhood overlooking the Atlantic that took the brunt of Friday's mortar pounding.

"This is another promise again," refugee Sylvester Blamo, 30, said in the same neighbourhood, as aid workers tended to lumpily filled body bags.

"Until we see it with our own eyes, US troops on the ground for peace - then we will believe they are here for us," Blamo said.

Monrovia's people have prayed, even pleaded, for US deployment in the American-founded nation over two months as rebels pressed home their 3-year war to drive out Liberia's warlord-turned-president, Charles Taylor.

A few weeks ago, even false rumours of US Marines landing were enough to set off joyous celebrations, with dancing and singing in the streets. There was no such immediate outbreak of joy in the numbed city on Friday.

Three waves of attacks, the latest near a week-old, have killed hundreds in the capital. About 1.3 million residents hang on, gripped by hunger, thirst, epidemics and fear.

"I want to tell George Bush to do something hurriedly, very fast and quickly," Emmanuel Sieh, 28, cried earlier on Friday, as crowds spilled out into the streets following a fierce 20-missile barrage in 10 minutes.

One shell Friday struck inside the US Embassy compound, exploding harmlessly on rocky ground, a US official inside said.

Other rounds wrought carnage among refugees, who have crowded around the embassy by the thousands in hope for protection through proximity to the Americans.

One shell at the beginning of the attack slammed into a yard where two boys stood brushing their teeth, killing both.

Blocks away, another shell crashed into the yard of a school where hundreds of people have taken refuge.

The round killed seven refugees outright; an eighth was later reported dead at an international aid group's tent clinic.

At the school, wailing crowds surrounded the dead. Victims' flip-flops lay discarded, soaking in pools of blood. One body, that of a boy in his early teens, lay curled in a corner.

Cradling a 2-week-old baby, a woman sobbed uncontrollably next to a body bag holding the corpse of her sister, the child's mother.

"What do they want to achieve?" Peter Garwah, 27, cried out, before a new mortar round sent terrified survivors scrambling for cover under schoolhouse tables or pressing, screaming, against classroom walls.

"Innocent people are dying, not soldiers."

The casualty toll, reported by aid clinics and Monrovia's overwhelmed main hospital, was likely to climb far higher.

An ambulance brought gravely wounded people to the open-air tent hospital run by Medicins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders.

Workers ferried in the wounded - a man with a mangled leg; a woman with her intestines spilling out.

Rebels declared they welcomed word of the US deployment.

"I think that's what all Liberians want to hear. We applaud that," said Charles Benney, an envoy for rebel at off-and-on peace talks in Accra, Ghana.

"We've been waiting for the Americans to make a commitment for a long time," Benney said.

Taylor's government's welcome was far more grudging. Bush has declared that Taylor must step down as part of any peace effort.

"We have always recognised that the United States is the superpower of the world and their presence in the international peacekeeping force in Liberia might make things easier to disarm the rebels," said Vaanii Paasawe, Taylor's spokesperson.

"We are only surprised that as a democracy itself, the United States could play the role it has in Liberia," Paasawe said.

West African leaders have promised a multinational force for Liberia since soon after rebels opened offensives in June on the city of one million, now crowded with hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Taylor, sought by a UN-backed court for alleged war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone, has promised to step down when foreign peacekeepers arrive. But he has repeatedly hedged on promises since June to cede power.

Regional leaders on Wednesday promised first deployment of Nigerian battalions within seven days.

Authorities spoke of setting a firm deployment date on Thursday - but a planning meeting then ended only with announcement of another planning meeting on Monday.

Officials in Nigeria, West Africa's military power, say privately that debates over funding of the mission is delaying deployment. The United States has committed at least $10m to the mission. Until Friday, it had yet to indicate a decision on international requests that it take a lead role by sending US troops.

On Friday, a woman wrapped in white stood before the US Embassy after the worst of the barrage, raising her arms beseechingly in the air.

"We're tired! We're tired!" she cried, swaying.

A Marine peered at her through binoculars from the embassy, which has remained staffed throughout the fighting.

Elsewhere, heavy fighting raged at three bridges leading from downtown, Taylor's stronghold, to the port, where rebels have holed up among the city's aid and commercial warehouses.

Government forces blazed across the bridges with 50-calibre machine guns mounted in pickup trucks, battling to keep rebels from crossing the bridges and moving toward downtown. - Sapa-AP

- SAPA