Liberians welcome promises of peacekeepers' arrival

MONROVIA, Liberia -- West African advance officers aided by U.S. contractors scoped out camp sites, aid groups flew in some of the first food shipments, and hopes of rescue rose in Liberia's bloodied capital on Sunday -- eve of a promised multinational peace deployment.

On Monrovia's Atlantic Ocean beaches, fishermen and fighters glanced at the horizon, where the U.S. Defense Department said two U.S. warships sent to support the West African peace force waited, newly arrived but still out of sight.

"We want peace!" said refugee Love Marshall, 16, singing as she danced with a broom across the floor of a war-ruined abandoned hotel. Refugees crowded onto the battered building's lower levels, while President Charles Taylor's gunmen lay in wait on its top levels, overlooking Monrovia's rebel-held port.

A promising week

Monday is to bring deployment of 300 Nigerian troops, vanguard of a 3,250-member West African force promised to come between Taylor's forces and insurgents that have waged two months of bloody attacks on Taylor's capital.

Taylor, a former warlord, pledged Saturday to cede power on Aug. 11 -- meeting one demand by fellow African leaders and the United States.

Ominously, however, Taylor's camp on Sunday hedged on the president's promise to go into exile in Nigeria, saying his agreement to yield power should be enough.

"The international community should give him a break. He's made the ultimate sacrifice," by handing over power, Information Minister Reginald Goodrich said. "No one should ask him to do more than that."

War crimes

The United States demands the departure of Taylor, blamed in 14 years of conflict in Liberia that have killed more than 100,000 since 1989, and accused of trafficking and arming insurgents across much of the region.

Taylor made, and broke, repeated cease-fires, peace accords and power-sharing deals in the 1990s, often launching attacks on past deployments of West African forces here.

His government said Saturday that Taylor would leave Liberia only when an adequate number of peacekeepers are on the ground, and when the war-crimes indictment is dropped.

U.N. prosecutors are adamant that Taylor face justice, raising the prospect of a standoff with the international peacekeepers and foreign powers.

On Sunday, a small West African assessment team laying the groundwork for the peacekeepers was gathering generators, food and fuel. Some of the goods were provided by U.S. suppliers through an already-announced $10 million U.S. support contract for the mission, said Col. Theophilus Tawiah of Ghana, the force's chief of staff.

Debt-strapped Nigeria says it needs far more international backing for the mission, expected to eventually cost at least $2 million daily.

Civilian supplies

Desperately needed food for Monrovia's people began trickling in. A half-ton of high-energy biscuits, part of an eventual 12-ton shipment, arrived in Monrovia on Saturday, the World Food Program said.

The French group Medecins san Frontieres also flew in bags of rice on Saturday. Save the Children said it planned to bring in 30 tons of supplies, including cholera medicine and rehydration kits and baby clothes later Sunday.

Fighting since early June has killed well over 1,000 civilians in the capital. Combat has cut off the port and the main water plant, leaving the city of more than 1 million -- now crowded with hundreds of thousands of refugees -- desperately short of food and water, and wracked by cholera.

A West African military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the force expected rebels to withdraw from Monrovia's port soon after the peacekeepers arrive, allowing more supplies into the nearly cut-off capital.

Sekou Conneh, leader of the main rebel group, said he already had ordered his fighters to give aid groups access to the port, home to Monrovia's aid and commercial warehouses.

U.N. mandate

The U.N. Security Council on Friday endorsed the deployment of the multinational force to Liberia. The deployment is to last two months, and be followed by U.N. peacekeepers in October.

It was still unclear whether U.S. Marines, deployed to Liberia's coast in three warships, will ever go ashore.

The Bush administration has insisted that West African peacekeeepers take the lead. despite calls from Liberians and leaders from around the world that U.S. forces spearhead the deployment. The United States oversaw Liberia's 19th century founding by freed American slaves, and the two countries remained commercial and strategic allies up to the end of the Cold War.

"We like the Nigerians -- but we want some few Americans or British, to help them out and ensure the stability of our country," said 45-year-old Timothy Holte, another refugee at the ruined hotel overlooking one of the urban battle zones.

Intermittent automatic weapons fire -- and occasional explosions at a bridge between rebel- and government-held sections of town -- could be heard Sunday in Monrovia. Bursts of gunfire sent people sprinting across streets as they combed neighborhoods for food and water.

Defense Minister Daniel Chea reported heavy fighting Sunday in Buchanan, Liberia's second city, where he said government fighters were trying to drive out rebels. It wasn't possible to independently confirm his claim; rebel representatives weren't immediately available for comment.