While negotiators approached a deadline for reaching a peace deal on Thursday there were reports of fighting less than an hour from the capital of this wa –ravaged country founded by US slaves over a century ago.
Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea claimed there was renewed fighting near Monvoria but rebels said they were unaware of any unrest.
”The military situation is developing into a full-scale attack against our positions by Lurd,” said Chea, referring to Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, one of the main rebel movements seeking to oust the government of President Charles Taylor.
Chea claimed that rebel forces had advanced on Sastown, 20km north of Monrovia.
Rebel officials from Lurd said they were unaware of fresh fighting.
Members of a team of US military advisers in Liberia assessing the situation here travelled to the areas of reported fighting but would not speak to journalists.
Reports of fighting could not be independently verified.
At a main roadblock on the outskirts of Monrovia, a militiaman who identified himself as a unit commander but would not give his name, announced: ”fighting is coming this way”.
A rabbit’s tail was tucked in his jacket pocket for good luck.
Around him were several teenage fighters in flip-flop and T-shirts toting taped-up AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
On Wednesday, General Benjamin Yeaten said Lurd rebels attacked the largely deserted town of Klay Junction, 35km north of Monrovia. Government forces regrouped and counterattacked, he said. Clashes between the sides were reportedly ongoing.
He suggested rebels may be trying to gain territory ahead of the planned arrival of peacekeepers.
Speeding pickup trucks full of teenage fighters loyal to the government were seen racing towards Klay Junction on Wednesday. But on Thursday, although more trucks were headed the same direction, soldiers at a major Monrovia checkpoint milled about appearing calm. There was no sign of heightened activity.
In nearby Ghana, meanwhile, negotiators worked to reach agreement on an interim government that would facilitate the arrival of peacekeepers.
A regional force of west African troops have been promised, but Liberians, who feel a historic and cultural bond with the United States, are pressing for the arrival of American troops as well.
US President George Bush has said that any deployment of American troops to Liberia would be limited in size and duration and would depend on President Charles Taylor, a former warlord blamed for instigating much of the violence of recent years, stepping down and leaving the country.
What has been described as a US-backed proposal calls for an interim government without Taylor or the leaders of the two rebel groups seeking to oust him to be set up by August, followed by multiparty elections in October 2004.
It is one of several plans under discussion at the talks.
Although a June ceasefire deal set Thursday as the deadline for finalising a peace deal, negotiators said it was unlikely agreement would be reached until later.
Negotiators, however, on all sides, said they thought a deal was close.
The Nigerian force commander of the West African peace keeping troops was planning to reach Liberia along with a team of cease-fire monitors as early as Friday, officials said on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, dressed in white, blessed by a popular American-based evangelist and accompanied by former US congressmen, Taylor told a captive audience of refugees sheltering from the latest round of fighting at a crumbling stadium that he would sacrifice his position for the sake of his people.
Taylor has yet to heed his often-repeated promise to leave Liberia, insisting peacekeeping forces arrive first.
”If I were to leave this country before the peacekeeping troops arrive in this city, I see disaster,” Taylor said. ”I see trouble, I see murder, mayhem, I see rape, I see total destruction.”
Emerging from a shiny black sedan to the words of a gospel choir singing, ”How Great Thou Art” he told the rally he would step down to ”give you, the Liberian people, a chance to live”.
Looking back at him from the stands of a mouldy sports stadium in the war-pocked capital were the sullen faces of thousands of war refugees who have turned the bleachers and underbelly of the stadium into their makeshift home.
The impromptu prayer rally, at which Washington DC-based Indian Christian evangelist KA Paul announced an international day of fasting for peace in Liberia on July 26, interrupted a food distribution at the stadium. Long lines of hungry refugees were forced by gun-toting security forces to move aside to make way for Taylor and his entourage including a military band wearing fatigues and cracked boots.
The loudest cheers came when Taylor told the crowd he would not fight any more.
Fourteen years of sporadic fighting followed Taylor’s ride to power in 1989. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. Aid groups say virtually the entire population has been displaced by fighting at one time or another.
Laying his hand on Taylor’s forehead in blessing, Paul, founder of the Global Peace Initiative religious crusade, asked God to cleanse and forgive Taylor.
”Lord, I know he has made mistakes. I have made mistakes. We have all made mistakes,” Paul said.
Taylor has been indicted for war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone, where he supported a brutal rebel movement known for hacking off civilian’s hands, feet, ears, noses and lips.
In Liberia, Taylor’s fighters are notoriously ill-disciplined and often armed with little more than rifles or rocket-propelled grenades, fired from the hip. Mutilation and summary execution are commonplace on all sides. – Sapa-AP