Taylor Videotapes Resignation
By Samson Mulugeta
Africa Correspondent
August 10, 2003, 8:57 PM EDT
Monrovia, Liberia -- In a rambling 20-minute farewell speech in which he compared himself to Jesus Christ, President Charles Taylor said Sunday he would leave office Monday because the United States wanted him out.
"I am being forced into exile by the world's superpower," Taylor said in an address videotaped at his home. "I see myself as in the case of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ... . I hold myself in the same position."
The performance was typical of a man whose messianic quest for power has wrecked this nation and destabilized the entire region. While Taylor's message was recorded for airing Sunday night, few Liberians were likely to hear it: Most of Monrovia lacks functioning televisions or electricity to keep TV and radio stations on the air.
Now, as Taylor faces his political demise with the routing of his fighters by rebel forces, he appears to have accepted the inevitable. He has said he will leave office one minute before noon Monday, handing power to his vice president, Moses Blah. It is unclear when, or if, Taylor will leave the country, although Nigeria has offered him asylum.
Rebels don't want Blah, a Taylor loyalist, to assume office, but mediators are pressuring them to accept him until arrangements for an interim government can be finalized.
There was a perceptible sense of tension in Monrovia Sunday as people braced themselves for last-minute maneuvers by Taylor that could continue the state of war.
"He's a man we say 'big, big talks,'" said an unemployed man named Joseph sheltering from a drizzle near the U.S. Embassy. "He's so tricky we don't believe anything he says until it actually happens."
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