Liberia's President Charles Taylor pledged Tuesday to yield power as part of a cease-fire with rebels. But his government quickly hedged on the resignation.
surprise meter not registering...
In Monrovia, Taylor's spokesman suggested within hours of the signing in nearby Ghana that the cease-fire was the only binding part of the accord.
the rest was speculation and theory
| "Chuck had his fingers crossed when he promised, see? It don't count if yer fingers are crossed." |
''It's a political discussion, including the issue of the stepping aside of President Taylor,'' spokesman Vaanii Paasawe said. ''What we were successful in doing in Accra was to separate the cease-fire issue from the political questions.'' The government signed the truce as insurgents in Liberia's latest civil war, dating from 1999, were at the edge of Monrovia, prevented from overrunning the capital only by fierce fighting with Taylor loyalists.
| Saved his ass, and the rest of him with it. Now he'll try to regroup and go on the offensive, victoriously driving the rebels before him, raping their wimmin and children and stealing their stuff. The rebels, on the other hand, will ignore the ceasefire, just as most Third World ceasefires are ignored, and try to snuff him. |
Taylor, 54, made no public comment on the pact, and his radio station announced only the cease-fire, not the rest of the pact—which calls for further negotiations to work out a full peace deal and a new government without Taylor. If the president does step down, it would end the rule of a warlord who threw his country into years of civil war and drew UN sanctions for gunrunning and diamond-smuggling that allegedly supported rebel movements elsewhere. Taylor faces the prospect of trial at a UN-backed court for alleged war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone, where he supported rebels in a 10-year insurgency. The indictment was announced June 4.
| That's the easy way out. He also faces the prospect of being killed and eaten... |
After the cease-fire was signed in Accra, a court spokesman insisted Taylor still would have to face justice. ''Whether he's president or not, he's indicted by the special court, so he should have his day in court,'' David Hecht said. State Department deputy spokesman Philip T. Reeker spoke of Liberians' suffering under Taylor and said those responsible for atrocities in West Africa's conflicts should be held accountable.
He probably realized he had no place to go without being arrested, or even better, killed |