Taylor rejects transition government within 30 days

Liberian President Charles Taylor rejected on Friday the proposed formation of a transitional government within 30 days that would exclude him. Taylor said he would only step down at the end of his term in January 2004, and even then, he might stand for re-election. "There can be no such thing as an interim government within thirty-days," Taylor said in a radio broadcast. "The vast majority of our Liberian people [and] traditional chiefs do not want me to step aside." The president's back-tracking from a pledge given two weeks ago that he would stand down if that would help bring peace to the war-torn country, is likely to complicate peace talks with two rebel movements in Ghana. On Tuesday, the government signed a ceasefire agreement with Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). This stipulated that a transition government that excluded Taylor would be appointed within 30 days. All sides are seeking a lasting political settlement to end 14 years of almost continuous civil war in Liberia. At the start of the peace talks on 4 June, Taylor said he was prepared step aside if this would bring peace to the country. But on Friday, the president contradicted himself: "I intend to complete my tenure as president and turn over to the vice-president. I reserve the right, my constitutional right, following the transition, to run for general elections if I decided to do so." "I still enjoy the confidence and popularity of Liberians," Taylor added. The current vice-president is Moses Zeh Blah. Taylor sacked him and placed him under house arrest on charges of plotting a coup the day after peace talks began. But he released Blah a few days later and re-instated him. In Friday's radio broadcast, Taylor tried to minimise the importance of the current discussions in Accra, saying they were "not a sovereign conference but peace talks". He said the forum could not postpone elections as proposed by eight opposition parties. "All controversial matters will be decided by the Supreme Court," he added. Before the talks began,Taylor had said legislative and presidential elections would be held on 14 October. But other parties at the peace conference suggested that a transitional administration should rule Liberia for two years before fresh elections were held. The first indications that Taylor would resist strong international pressure to quit emerged last week. Taylor told reporters then that he would not consider stepping down before January 2004, unless an indictment against him for war crimes were rescinded and immunity from prosecution were granted to him. The indictment was announced by the UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone as Taylor flew to Accra for the opening of the peace talks. It arose from Taylor's alleged support to the Revolutionary United Front rebels of Sierra Leone, who amputated, raped and murdered thousands of Sierra Leoneans during the country's 1991-2001 civil war. David Hecht, the Special Court spokesman told IRIN that the indictment against Taylor could not be side-stepped. "Under international law there is no such thing as immunity for those accused of crimes against humanity," he said. Information Minister Reginald Goodridge said on Thursday that an unceremonial departure for Taylor could lead to a "bloodbath" in Liberia. "What is important to this government is that Taylor should be part of the disarmament and demobilization process and the transition from war to Peace," Goodridge said. Meanwhile, international relief agencies took advantage of the guns falling silent to renew their efforts to bring food and medical aid to Liberia's beleaguered 2.7 million population. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it flew 15 tonnes of medical and logistical supplies into Monrovia on Friday to help people displace by the conflict. The consignment included medicines, supplementary and therapeutic feeding kits, emergency water and sanitation supplies and enough supplies to keep a 30-bed hospital going for three months. World Vision meanwhile started distributing food to 9,524 displaced people at the D. Tweh high school in Monrovia. World Vision said a many of the displaced who fled to the city centre to seek refuge after a rebel attack on the capital two weeks ago had started returning to their camps on the outskirts of the city. These housed over 100,000 people before the LURD attack on Monrovia led to five days of heavy fighting in the city's western suburbs. Thousands of foreign nationals have left Monrovia since the rebel assault on the city. The Nigerian government evacuated over 3,000 Nigerians in two chartered planes which operated an air shuttle to Lagos that ended on Thursday, according to sources at the Nigerian embassy. Hundreds of Liberians and Ghanaians were still camped at the port of Monrovia on Friday in the hope of leaving by sea. A Ghanaian naval vessel was due to take out 300 to 400 more Ghanaian nationals at the weekend.