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| Africa |
| Rebels strike back at gates of Liberian capital |
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by
Alphonso Toweh, Reuters, 25 June 2003
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18:15:21
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Heavy shelling echoed through the suburbs of Liberia’s capital Monrovia on Wednesday and terrified civilians fled deeper into the city as rebels punched towards the centre, firing rockets and mortars.
President Charles Taylor vowed to fight for his survival — defiant words from a former warlord under attack in his seat of power for the second time in three weeks, and under international fire as an indicted war criminal.
“I am right here with the men- and women-in-arms, encouraging them to continue to fight, to fight on,” he told local radio on Wednesday. “Your survival is my survival, my survival is your survival.”
The new rebel offensive has shattered hopes of a peaceful end to West Africa’s bloodiest war and raised the spectre of a brutal last-ditch battle on the streets of the coastal capital.
Frightened civilians fled Monrovia’s vulnerable suburbs, where more than 300 people died during a rebel offensive earlier this month. Thousands of people are still crowded in the city centre since that attack.
It was not immediately clear how far the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) had pushed on Wednesday. Last time, they attacked to within five kms (three miles) of the city centre before being driven back.
Civilians said they had crossed the key St Paul’s River bridge, just 10 km (six miles) from the centre but this was impossible to verify immediately.
“What the rebels are trying to do now is launch long-range missiles into some areas of the city,” said one military source. Residents said rockets had already slammed into the city.
“We are all afraid. There’s heavy shooting and we are all just sitting here praying to God. It is not easy now,” said a woman called Theresa.
Taylor accused rebels of launching mortar shells into civilian centres, killing women and children.
The fighting has all but sunk a ceasefire agreed a week ago, and cast a long shadow on talks in Ghana that were supposed to lead quickly to a comprehensive peace agreement.
Lurd, which is the main rebel faction, said on Tuesday it had begun moving to retake positions held before the truce.
Liberians had hoped last week’s deal would pave the way for an end to a war that has devastated their country and generated an army of ruthless fighters spreading chaos across the region.
But in the terrified capital, nobody has forgotten that more than a dozen deals were signed and broken during a civil war that left 200,000 dead in the 1990s. That war left the city in ruins, with bodies strewn along its potholed streets.
Founded as a haven of liberty by freed American slaves in the 19th century, Liberia has known little but killing and chaos since 1989. Its war has sent savage offshoots into neighbouring Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast.
Two rebel factions controlling more than 60 percent of the country are determined to get rid of Taylor, who has been indicted by a UN-backed court for war crimes in Sierra Leone, where fighters hacked off civilians’ limbs.
Under last week’s ceasefire deal, the rebels, Taylor’s supporters and opposition politicians were to come up with an overall agreement in 30 days and discuss forming a transition government without the president.
The rebels say that means he must step down soon, but Taylor has said he will not leave before the end of his elected mandate in January and will contest future elections if he wants to.
The rebels include many of Taylor’s enemies from the earlier civil war, a vicious struggle that exacerbated tribal divisions. |
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