Liberian rebels reject US demand to leave capital

LIBERIAN rebels rejected US calls yesterday to withdraw immediately from the capital Monrovia and said amid fresh heavy fighting that they would stay until foreign peacekeepers arrived.

At least 14 people were killed yesterday when rebels fired mortars on homes in the besieged capital.

A top West African official said Nigerian troops would move into Liberia this week and President Bush has ordered American troops to sail to positions off the Liberian coast to help West African peacekeepers deploy.

“Why should I pull back? We’ll hand over positions to the peacekeepers, not to (President Charles) Taylor,” said Sekou Conneh, chairman of the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD).

Conneh said the rebels were ready to hand over some positions, such as Monrovia’s port, when peacekeepers arrived.

The rebels gained ground against government forces and mortar bombs terrorised Monrovia’s residents as pictures of the latest fighting flashed around the world, showing bloodied bodies, wailing women grieving loved ones and cowering children.

Taylor, a former warlord indicted by a UN-backed war crimes court, has pledged to step down once peacekeepers arrive. He now controls only about a third of a country that has been plagued by almost non-stop war for 14 years.

Heavy fighting raged around two bridges leading to the heart of the coastal capital and mortar rounds landed in the city’s central diplomatic quarter, residents said.

Military sources accused the rebels of launching a new attack on the capital of a nation founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century in the name of liberty that has turned into an anarchic nest of gunmen, some just children, and tribal hatreds.

Residents said very heavy gunfire resounded from the bridges where fighting has been concentrated for more than a week.

US ambassador John Blaney told reporters the Liberian government had accepted a US proposal to use the Po River, some 7.5 miles from Monrovia’s outskirts, as a new demarcation line and he called on LURD to do the same.

West African leaders have pledged to deploy some 1,300 Nigerian troops as the vanguard force of a larger mission.