Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 21, 1990 TAG: 9007210046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONROVIA, LIBERIA LENGTH: Medium
Witnesses reported many government casualties, and shipping sources said two Liberian coast guard cutters were sunk in the port by gunfire.
In downtown Monrovia, every shop and office was closed Friday. Nervous troops ordered civilians off the streets in an unofficial daytime curfew.
The United States said it would not intervene to halt the 2-day-old rebel offensive, the latest drive in the 7-month-old civil war.
The rebels, led by former Doe aide Charles Taylor, captured Monrovia's 2-square-mile port area in the northern suburb of Bushrod Island. They advanced toward the two bridges linking the island to the center of the city.
Infiltrating rebel troops fought pitched battles with government soldiers who remained on Bushrod Island, the witnesses said.
In Washington, the State Department said the United States has no plans to dispatch a U.S. peacekeeping force requested by some Liberian officials.
Spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler confirmed President Bush had received an appeal from Foreign Minister J. Rudolph Johnson and eight other prominent Liberians for a temporary U.S. force.
But Nelson Taylor, the rebel leader's brother, said the appeal "is just one of the scams that Doe is using to involve the U.S. in a battle with the citizens of Liberia."
When asked if the rebels were prepared to fight U.S. forces he said: "We will fight until the U.S. can kill every one of us." He spoke from his home in Providence, R.I., and said he represented the rebel forces.
Representatives of the government and the rebels have met intermittently for peace talks in neighboring Sierra Leone, but the negotiations have failed to make any progress.
The rebels have accused Doe, who took power in a 1980 coup, of corruption, mismanagement and widespread human rights abuses. Taylor has promised to maintain close U.S. ties if he comes to power, but he has ruled out immediate elections.
by CNB