Liberia's Taylor yield's power for exile ( 2003-08-12 08:59) (Agencies)
Charles Taylor, the warlord who brought 14 years of death and destruction to
Liberia, yielded the presidency Monday under pressure from rebels, the United
States and West African neighbors — but not before vowing, "I will be back."
Liberia's Charles Taylor (L) boards a
Nigerian aircraft at Monrovia's International airport after resigning as
president and handing over to his deputy, August 11, 2003. Taylor flew
into exile under overwhelming international pressure to end the strife
that has racked his land and West Africa for nearly 14 years.
[Reuters]
Taylor surrendered power to his vice
president as rebels lay siege to the capital, and then flew into exile in
Nigeria.
Three U.S. warships briefly hove into view off Monrovia within minutes of
Taylor's ceding power to his vice president, Moses Blah. In Denver, President
Bush called Taylor's exile "an important step" but gave no hint whether it
moved him closer toward deploying more U.S. troops to assist with peacekeeping
or humanitarian relief efforts.
"It is an important step toward a better future for the Liberian people,"
Bush said.
Hundreds of Liberians, thin and ragged, lined their country's rock-lined
shores, exclaiming and hugging at a dramatic day they prayed would mark a
turning point for their country.
"From now on, everything is going to be all right," said 25-year-old Ansu
Outland.
"Peace! Peace!" others shouted in the jostling crowds, under eyes of
government fighters armed with AK-47s.
Charles Taylor and his wife Jewel, arrive
in Calabar, Nigeria, early Aug. 12, 2003, to begin a life of exile after
turning over power to his Vice President Moses Blah. Taylor arrived into
exile at abuja airport and is expected to set up home for his family in
Calabar, Nigeria. [AP]
Taylor flew to Abuja, the
Nigerian capital, within three hours of resigning as president. Rebels have
seized most of Liberia in their three-year campaign to depose Taylor.
Family, friends and a small lingering cadre of supporters cried and wailed at
Liberia's main airport as Taylor climbed the stairs of a jet provided by
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
At the top, the 54-year-old Taylor turned and raised a white handkerchief to
wave at the crowd. Security forces brusquely hustled him inside before he
completed the gesture.
With Taylor out of sight, the South African, Ghanaian and Mozambican
presidents who came to escort him into exile lingered on the tarmac for their
own, red-carpet send-off from Liberia's new president, Blah.
Taylor, a Liberian-born, Boston-educated business student who trained in
guerrilla fighting in Libya, faces a U.N.-backed war-crimes indictment for his
trafficking with a vicious rebel movement in neighboring Sierra Leone.
Standing U.N. sanctions against him and dozens of associates accuse him of
diamond- and arms-trafficking with insurgents in much of West Africa.
On Monday, Taylor mentioned returning to Liberia despite admitted fears of
assassination and the war crimes court's international arrest warrant.
Fellow West African leaders lauded Taylor for yielding power. The sweaty,
crowded handoff ceremony featured Blah and Taylor under generator-lit
chandeliers, run by scrounged fuel in a war-battered city that has been without
electricity for years.
"It is our estimation that today, the war in Liberia has ended," declared
President John Kufuor of Ghana, who with Obasanjo and South African President
Thabo Mbeki was instrumental in coaxing Taylor into exile.
Mbeki newly pledged South Africa's well-armed, highly trained soldiers for
the 3,250-strong peace force for Liberia.
"It is indeed shameful that as Africans we have killed ourselves for such a
long time," Mbeki said. "It is indeed time that this war should come to an end."
In Accra, Ghana, site of off-and-on peace talks, rebel leader Sekou Conneh
agreed.
"The war is over," he said. "I'm happy and I know everybody is happy."
The United States, which oversaw Liberia's founding by freed slaves in the
19th century, has provided some logistical support and funding to the West
African peace mission.
"The United States will work with the Liberian people and the international
community to achieve a lasting peace after a decade of suffering," Bush said.
Bush also thanked the leaders of several Liberian neighbors, including South
Africa, Mozambique and Nigeria, which has readied three homes in the remote
southeastern jungles for Taylor and his family.
"Their continued leadership will be needed in the weeks and months ahead,"
Bush said.
Nigerian security forces say privately they will monitor Taylor to keep him
from continuing as Liberia's power-broker from exile.
Obasanjo welcomed Taylor at the international airport in the Nigerian
capital, Abuja. The two leaders shook hands and embraced before walking down a
red carpet together to the presidential lounge.
"Here was a man who decided to make a sacrifice, believing that sacrifice
would bring his country peace," Obasanjo said.
"We will endeavor to be good hosts while they are here. And I hope the world
will give them time to settle down."
Taylor, dressed all in white and smiling as he descended from the plane, did
not address reporters.
At Monday's handover ceremony in Monrovia, Taylor, in a white safari suit,
sat side-by-side with Blah, in flowing white traditional robes. Both men were
enthroned in oversized velvet-and-geared chairs in an executive mansion chamber
reinforced against assassination attempts.
Taylor's exit was unbowed.
"History will be kind to me. I have fulfilled my duties," he said, relaxed
and smiling in a hymn- and prayer-filled ceremony that seemed part send-off,
part revival, with the Liberian leader stopping once to compliment himself for
being such a good speaker.
He repeated much of his farewell address recorded Sunday night — but unheard
by Liberians until Monday morning, with radio stations off the air for days
because of the lack of fuel and food in the government-held part of the capital.
Accusing the United States anew of forcing him out, Taylor showed nothing
suggesting repentance for launching once-prosperous Liberia into bloodshed in
1989, when as a rebel he led a small insurgency to topple then-President Samuel
Doe.
"I have accepted this role as the sacrificial lamb ... I am the whipping
boy," Taylor said.
His parting words appeared to startle the crowd: "God willing, I will be
back," he said, drawing murmurs rather than the heavy applause that Kufuor's
declaration of peace received.
Taylor stood squarely behind Blah in the swearing-in ceremony that followed,
with Blah placing his left hand on the Bible as he took the oath of office.
Blah himself is to hand over power in October to a transition government
meant to lead Liberia into elections, Kufuor said.
Blah told CNN on Monday that Taylor will hold no sway over his government
while in exile.
"He is gone. He would not interfere with the day-to-day activities of the
Liberian government," Blah said. "I am a truly independent president."
In government-held Monrovia, hungry families scouring markets for food were
"happy for that man to go."
"I've got no way to live now," said Mercy Clalabah, who lost his mother,
father, a sister and three nieces and nephews when a mortar slammed into
refugees who sought shelter near the U.S. Embassy last month.
She and others upended baskets and shopping bags to show what they found to
eat: Nothing.
Rebels have pledged to open Monrovia's port for aid and food when West
African peacekeepers are ready to deploy there, and after Taylor departed.
In his CNN interview, Blah appealed to the U.S. Marines offshore: "Please
come to Liberia and save us because we are dying. We are hungry."
The three U.S. warships that moved within sight of shore Monday were the USS
Iwo Jima, the USS Carter Hall and the USS Nashville, with 2,300 Marines and
2,500 sailors aboard. The ships have been within 100 miles of Liberia for more
than a week. U.S. officials had said they were awaiting for the right moment
before bringing them into sight.
Mist-shrouded hulks, they moved back out of view within an hour
Monday.
