Liberian president claims coup failed

Liberian President Charles Taylor, a newly indicted war crimes suspect, claimed today that his government had foiled an attempted coup to unseat him.

Speaking in the capital Monrovia, Taylor said an attempted takeover of his government was launched yesterday by “certain officials” supported by unidentified foreign diplomats.

Taylor did not reveal whether any arrests had been made, but said he had “accepted the resignation” of his vice-president, Moses Blah, “as a result” of the coup attempt.

“The attempt was foiled,” Taylor said, adding that “contacts were made by certain embassies accredited near this capital to senior armed forces personnel that did not accept their proposition.”

Blah “will be explaining in the next few days to the nation and the world what prompted actions on his part and I am sure he will have an apology for the Liberian people,” Taylor said.

The Liberian leader, who said the coup attempt came while he was in Accra, Ghana, to attend peace talks with rebel groups who are advancing on his capital, added that he might call for a government of national unity.

“We are going to remain on course not for me, but for the Liberian people. We want to continue to ask for your prayers,” he said.

A UN-sponsored war crimes court in neighbouring Sierra Leone charged Taylor with crimes against humanity yesterday for a 10-year terror campaign in which tens of thousands of people were killed, raped, kidnapped or maimed in Sierra Leone.