Taylor due to step down as Liberian president

Liberian president Charles Taylor was due to step down today but in a final address to the nation he declared himself a “sacrificial lamb” and accused the US of arming the country’s rebels.

Taylor, sitting solemnly with folded hands, recorded the address before a Liberian flag at his home, for broadcast later on the eve of his promised resignation at 11.59am local time (12.59pm Irish time) today.

“I do not stop out of fear. I do not stop out of fright. I stop out of love for you, my people,” Taylor declared, adding: “I fought for you.”

He accused the US of arming Liberia’s rebels, calling it an “American war” and suggesting it was motivated by US eagerness for Liberia’s gold, diamonds and other reserves.

“I love this country very much. This is why I have decided to sacrifice my presidency,” he said.

Speaking slowly with a raspy voice, the Liberian leader declared: “They can call off their dogs now. We can have peace.”

It was a goodbye that few would hear in his desperate, war-divided capital - preoccupied in the search for food, and without power to keep radio or TV stations on the air.

Two months of rebel sieges have left well over 1,000 civilians dead in the capital Monrovia.

West African leaders extracted Taylor’s promises to leave today, to be followed by exile in Nigeria some unspecified time after.

Taylor recorded the farewell speech for radio at a desk behind shelves piled high with folders. Lit by generators running on fuel scrounged by the presidency, the scene was recorded separately on scratchy audiotape.

By last night, the speech had yet to be played on local radio in the unlit capital, shattered by shelling and littered with shrapnel, bullet casings and rubbish from looting by Taylor’s forces.

The recording session came as at least one car piled high with luggage pulled out of Taylor’s high-walled private home.

Female members of Taylor’s party danced outside to show support, and maimed veterans of 14 years of conflict under Taylor stood aimlessly.

Support stopped just across the street from the former warlord’s home. “We’ve been praying to Almighty God for this day,” said Theoway Gayweh, among small crowds gathered across the street to watch what they hoped would be the last hours of Taylor’s regime.

Most in government-held Monrovia spent the day scouting for food in markets that had little to offer except leaves.