Street battles left at least nine Liberians dead on Wednesday as United Nations forces tried to quell rampages by ex-government militias in Liberia’s capital. Police and residents said all but one of the deaths came in fighting between UN troops and the ex-militiamen.
UN military commanders said at least one UN peacekeeper was wounded, but neither civilian nor military UN officials would confirm that UN troops had fired back at any point.
Any such UN-Liberian battle would mark the first engagement by international forces, deployed in the country since early August in the run-up to an August 18 peace deal between rebels and fighters loyal to warlord and former president Charles Taylor.
The fighting comes amid three days of rampages by Taylor-loyal troops demanding immediate cash for giving up their guns under a four-day-old UN disarmament program.
United States, UN and Liberian leaders condemned the violence as gunfire continued through Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, demanding in repeated warnings on state radio and in statements that fighters lay down their arms.
At daylight on Wednesday, Associated Press journalists saw eight bodies lying in the streets on the capital’s eastern side.
The bodies appeared to be those of government-allied militia fighters, dressed in civilian clothes.
Hundreds of Taylor’s forces surrounded the dead men, looking at them in disbelief.
Residents and police officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity, said militia fighters had challenged a 10pm curfew imposed late on Tuesday to try to stop the rampages.
Residents said Nigerian UN peacekeeping troops rolled in with armoured vehicles in response.
UN peacekeepers and militias exchanged fire, a top Liberian police official and residents in the area said.
UN spokesperson Margaret Novicki said she knew of no firing by UN troops, and said she knew of only one casualty, a woman killed on Tuesday by stray bullets during the rampages.
A UN commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one UN commander from the West African nation of Benin was shot in the leg when his men tried to arrest militia members at a checkpoint late on Wednesday.
The commander insisted he did not know of UN troops returning fire.
Extra UN forces were out on the streets on Wednesday, and schools were closed.
US ambassador John Blaney demanded over state radio late on Tuesday that militia fighters surrender their arms.
Insisting that all sides in American-founded Liberia stick to their peace pledges, Blaney repeated international officials’ standing warning: ”This is Liberia’s last chance.”
Gyude Bryant, Liberia’s interim leader under the peace deal, also went on state radio, warning that the rampaging troops would be arrested and brought before a war-crimes court.
In a statement, UN envoy Jacques Klein, an American, called it ”unfortunate that a small criminal element has attempted to disrupt what is a major international effort to bring peace, security and stability to the Liberian people”.
Klein pledged that disarmament would continue. The UN says it will oversee the disarming of 40 000 rebel and government fighters in the next nine months — although the violence disrupted the start of government disarmament, and rebels have stalled on the start of their arms surrender.
Taylor, a Libyan-trained guerrilla fighter, launched Liberia into conflict in 1989. An estimated quarter-million Liberians died in the 14 years of bloodletting that followed, until Taylor fled into exile in Nigeria on August 11.
West African peace forces led the international deployment here.
The United Nations took charge of the peace force two-and-a-half months ago. — Sapa-AP