NEWS: FRENCH SAVE AMERICANS FROM LIBERIA
[ed: how ironic...]
MONROVIA, Liberia, June 9 — French military helicopters evacuated Americans and other foreigners from the besieged capital of Liberia at dawn Monday, ferrying them from embassy compounds to a French navy ship in the Atlantic. The evacuations came as President Charles Taylor’s soldiers reported more fighting, with rebel forces bearing down on the western edge of the city and explosions sounding in the distance.
THE THUNDER of mortars and heavy artillery echoed across the city as French troops whisked 535 people from 38 nations, among them 100 Americans, by helicopter to a naval vessel waiting off the West African coast, a French official at the United Nations said.
Smoke billowed over Monrovia’s northwestern suburbs, under rebel attack for the fourth day running. A report from the U.N. regional information service IRIN said more than 100 bodies were lying by one of the capital’s main roads.
“I feel pity, I feel pity about the country and the general situation,” said Vladislav, a Red Cross doctor from Belarus as he was taken to safety by the French forces. “You feel relieved as a human being because you are leaving, but Liberia deserves a better life.”
Military sources said the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) had launched a dawn strike on the city, despite promises to halt its offensive and give peace talks in Ghana a chance. Fighting continued in the afternoon.
LURD negotiators in Ghana said the rebels were only responding to provocations by forces loyal to Taylor.
“Taylor has to stop fighting, because otherwise we’ll have to finish him off,” said Charles Bennie, a LURD official.
HASTY EXIT
Helicopters left first from the walled European Union compound, a hillside complex overlooking the ocean for European diplomatic staff in Liberia. The aircraft then continued to the neighboring U.S. Embassy compound, retrieving about 100 Americans who had gathered overnight.
Children at the U.S. Embassy pressed their faces against windows to watch the approaching helicopters. One teenager sat slumped in a corner, cradling an arm wounded by gunfire.
“I’m afraid for my life. I don’t want to get killed,” said Edna Oshoko, a Liberian-American waiting to be evacuated.
At the European compound, EU forces stood guard as aid workers, ducking against debris from the twirling blades, ran down a rocky hillside and climbed into the aircraft.
“We can’t work, and we had to leave,” said Isabelle de Bourning, of French aid group Doctors Without Borders, running for the helicopter. “I hope it will be quick.”
The U.S. State Department called on rebel forces in Liberia on Monday to adhere to a cease-fire pledge and avoid any violence toward civilians. Spokesman Philip Reeker cautioned also that “those who commit new human rights abuses and war crimes will be held responsible for these actions.”
He said rebels had engaged government forces on Bushroad Island, northwest of the capital. “They must quickly adhere to their cease-fire pledge and strictly avoid any violence toward civilians,” Reeker said.
The spokesman said the United States remained committed to reconciliation and cease-fire talks. “We call on all combatants to cease their campaigns of violence, to spare the lives and property of innocent civilians,” Reeker said.
Reeker thanked France for its role in facilitating the evacuation.
AMBASSADOR STAYS
U.S. Ambassador John Blaney and a coterie of Marine guards, U.S. special forces and security contractors planned to remain behind at the U.S. Embassy, U.S. authorities said.
Reeker said the embassy remained open and continued to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens. The spokesman renewed a warning against travel to Liberia.
The European Union, which operates the water plants for this war-ravaged city of 1 million, now crowded with refugees, also planned to keep a core staff here as long as possible, Parker said.
Liberians, residents of a nation founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century, came out of their shacks and watched silently as the helicopters flew back and forth across the seascape.
The French-led evacuation was being coordinated by E.U. and U.S. Embassy officials because most countries have only honorary representatives in Liberia. Many embassies closed at the start of Liberia’s bloody 1989-96 civil war and never reopened.
The evacuation had been planned at least since the weekend, when rebels fighting to oust Taylor made two pushes into the city outskirts.
Liberian forces and local radio reported more fighting on the west side at dawn, as the evacuations began. Explosions sounded occasionally from that direction.
Pro-Taylor militia fighters raced through the city in jeeps with mounted cannons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Stores were shuttered and most gas stations closed.
Thousands of terrified civilians were on the move, heading for the city’s eastern suburbs. Others bundled mattresses on their heads and rushed back to the U.S. Embassy complex, where Americans refused them entry during weekend fighting.
“God will help us,” a heavyset Liberian woman said, heading uphill toward the U.S. complex with a cloth bundle on her head.
REBEL DRIVE
Late Sunday, Liberian government soldiers claimed to have beaten back the latest rebel advance into the capital, driving insurgents deeper into the swamps behind the St. Paul’s River bridge marking the city’s western entrance.
The rebels’ drive against Taylor gained momentum Wednesday, when a joint U.N.-Sierra Leone court charged him with war crimes for allegedly aiding Sierra Leone rebels in their vicious 10-year terror campaign.
By Sunday, Taylor controlled little of the country outside of the capital.
The rebels’ leader told The Associated Press on Sunday that insurgents will fight their way into the capital unless Taylor yields.
“We want the international community to ask him to step down so as to avoid bloodshed,” the chairman of LURD, Sehon Damate Conneh Jr., said in Rome, where he met with the Catholic Sant’Egidio Community, which mediates world conflicts.
“If Taylor doesn’t step down, we would go in.”
Taylor vowed in an interview with the AP on Saturday to keep the city. He directed Sunday’s fighting from a white-walled compound in the city’s main port on the Atlantic Ocean.
The port is on the city’s west side and apparently is the rebels’ immediate objective.
Government defense officials said Sunday that rebels made their latest raid across the St. Paul’s River in dugout canoes, bypassing the bridge.
Before the drive on Monrovia, Liberia’s civil war already had uprooted 1 million people within the country and sent 300,000 fleeing to neighboring countries.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
msnbc.com |
