ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 5, 1990                   TAG: 9006050337
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONROVIA, LIBERIA                                LENGTH: Medium

REBELS SEIZE RUBBER PLANTATION IN LIBERIA

Four U.S. warships carrying 2,000 Marines arrived off Liberia as residents of Monrovia on Monday fled before advancing rebels. The U.S. Embassy said the ships would help evacuate Americans and other foreigners from Liberia if necessary.

The rebels on Monday seized the eastern part of the American-managed Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. rubber plantation adjoining the main international airport, 35 miles from the capital, diplomats said.

They said the rebels surrounded the plantation factory a mile from Robertsfield International Airport.

But Trevor Hoskins, Bridgestone/Firestone's executive director of public relations, said in Ohio that he talked Monday with the plantation managing director, "who indicated . . . everything was quiet."

Officials of President Samuel Doe begged "all peace-loving nations," including the United States, "to come to the aid of the Liberian people." Doe has been holed up in his presidential mansion in Monrovia, shielded by about 1,000 Israeli-trained troops.

Information Minister Emmanuel Bouwier told the British Broadcasting Corp. in a telephone interview that Doe insisted he would not resign. Doe promised last Friday he would not run in scheduled 1991 elections.

The U.S. State Department has accused rebel leader Charles Taylor of receiving support from the radical North African nation of Libya, but it also has said Marines will not intervene in support of Doe's government.

The rebels belong mostly to Liberia's Gio and Mano tribes, and invaded this West African nation of 2.5 million people from neighboring Ivory Coast last December.

Residents of Harbel, the rubber plantation town, said vehicles flying the red rebel flag and guerrillas wearing telltale red bandanas had moved onto the eastern part of the plantation. 


 by CNB