Prometheus 6   

Rebel Forces Return to Liberian Capital
As rocket blasts pound Monrovia, civilians flee the suburbs. President Taylor urges his troops to fight to the last man.
By Ann M. Simmons
Times Staff Writer

July 20, 2003

MONROVIA, Liberia -- Rebels battling to oust President Charles Taylor entered the capital Saturday, pushing tens of thousands of civilians and retreating soldiers farther downtown.

Exploding rockets continued into the night after a day of heavy machine gun and mortar fire. Rebels crossed the St. Paul Bridge that marks the boundary of the city, putting them within three miles of the city center.

Dressed in full combat gear, Taylor took to the streets of Monrovia and called on his troops to fight until the last man. He vowed to stick with his soldiers to the bitter end.

"I say to you, my people, I will be here with you," Taylor said. "I will stay here with you. I will go no place until I am convinced that the international forces are here and in sufficient quantities [so] that I can no longer worry how many of you will die or how many of you can expect to be blown away by some bomb.

"I am with you to the end," the president continued. "This is my country. I live with you and I die with this."

Rebel leaders attending peace talks in the nearby Ghanaian capital of Accra denied that they had plans to seize Monrovia and accused Taylor's troops of provoking a fight.

"The government has sent people out to harass our people and attack us," said Gen. Joe Wylie, a senior military advisor for the rebel movement known as Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy. He spoke by phone from Ghana. "We are not going to attack Monrovia," he said, even as rebels troops were advancing.

Civilians were not prepared to take any chances. As dawn broke Saturday, thousands straggled into town from Monrovia's far-flung northwestern suburbs: men and boys with sacks of clothes and mattresses balanced atop their heads; women, babies strapped to their backs, toting plastic buckets stuffed with meager bundles of their belongings.