Taylor reconsiders pledge to stand down

LIBERIAN President Charles Taylor said he is reconsidering his promise to cede power, as rebels seeking to oust him declared a new cease-fire yesterday.

Taylor’s spokesman said the leader is reconsidering his pledge, seeing it as only encouraging rebel attacks. Taylor and his government have been angered by the rebel capture of Buchanan, the nation’s second-largest city.

“We are of a different opinion now in the government about the validity of the overtures of the president to step down,” spokesman Vaanii Paasawe said. “So if you start hearing us say differently, you shouldn’t be surprised,” he said.

The rebels insisted they would not pull out of the capital Monrovia until peacekeeping troops arrive. The pledge fell short of US demands that they leave Monrovia, opening the city’s port for vital deliveries of food and other aid. Rebel civilian officials, in Accra, Ghana, for off-and-on peace talks, have declared cease-fires throughout nearly two months of rebel attacks on the capital.

Officials’ cease-fire announcements in recent weeks have done nothing to stop fighting on the ground.

Taylor, a former warlord blamed for 14 years of near-constant conflict in Liberia, has said since early June he would yield power.

Also yesterday, Taylor’s forces launched what they called a major counter-attack on the key port of Buchanan, battling to take it back after it fell to insurgents.

Military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported a “big fight” at the Atlantic coastal city.

Officials said Taylor’s forces also were struggling to take back Taylor’s northern stronghold of Gbarnga, which like Buchanan fell to insurgents on Monday.

Fighting had divided the town of Gbargna, 110 miles north of Monrovia, between rebels and government fighters, and gunbattles raged, a Liberian military commander said, also on condition of anonymity.

Government forces had retaken a military base, Naama, to the north of Gbarnga, the commander said.

Battles across the West African nation came as rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy movement continued to press their 10-day siege of the capital, Monrovia, in fighting that has killed hundreds of civilians.

Rebels also hold Monrovia’s port, cutting off warehouses filled with food from the city’s increasingly hungry and disease-ridden populace of more than 1.3 million.

In Accra, leaders of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy movement called a unilateral cease-fire, effective immediately, rebel peace talks envoy George Dewey said.

“But as we’re talking, (as) we’re announcing an unconditional cease-fire, (President Charles) Taylor is shelling our areas,” Dewey said, pressing international mediators to win a cease-fire from Taylor’s forces as well.

Taylor’s government reacted with scepticism. “They have declared many cease-fires already,” Reginald Goodrich, Liberia’s information minister, said in Monrovia. “So let’s just see what happens.”

Rebels would turn Monrovia’s port over to peacekeepers as soon as a long-promised multinational force arrives, Dewey said.

Rebels would then withdraw to the Po River outside the city, he said.

US Ambassador John Blaney over the weekend had asked rebels to pull out of the city immediately.

The port has been the scene of battles since rebels opened their latest attack on the capital on July 19. Residents around the port reported heavy shelling in the area yesterday afternoon, after the cease-fire declaration in Ghana.