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'Revolution is a noble cause'
12/12/2005 09:01 - (SA)
Monrovia - The loser in Liberia's first post-war presidential elections has vowed to block the incoming leader's inauguration, pressing voting-fraud allegations in the fiery rhetoric prevalent during the 1989-2003 civil war.
International soccer superstar George Weah told hundreds of supporters on Sunday he would work to stymie the January inauguration of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who won the November balloting to become Africa's first-ever elected female head of state. Weah rejects the results, charging fraud.
"There is no victor for now, and I say there will be no inauguration in the country until the world gets together and finds a means for a peaceful resolution to the problem," said Weah, back in Liberia after meeting regional leaders.
Echoing the wartime bombast of Liberia's numerous warlords and factional leaders, he said: "Fellow partisans, revolution is a noble cause. We must fight to obtain it."
"It is our right to seek justice, and we will use all means to obtain that," he said to a cheering crowd. "I know one day we will be free."
Riot police spread out in streets near the site of Weah's address, and small, scattered skirmishes erupted between the security forces and Weah supporters.
The elections for a leader to take over from a transitional administration arranged under peace deals that ended the war were supposed to move Liberia past its recent bloody history, which saw some 200 000 people killed in years of fighting that ruined the country.
International election observers ruled the two rounds of voting had largely been clean, and the national elections council decided Weah's charges of ballot-box stuffing were groundless.
With heavy support among the young, jobless males that fought in Liberia's wars, Weah risks returning the country to strife through his continuing protests. About 15 000 United Nations peacekeepers are guarding Liberia's tenuous calm.
- AP
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