LIBERIA/USA: LIBERIANS PROTEST IN FRONT OF THE U.S. EMBASSY IN MONROVIA CALLING FOR THE UNITED STATES TO INTERVENE MILITARILY TO END CIVIL WAR
Record ID:
646628
LIBERIA/USA: LIBERIANS PROTEST IN FRONT OF THE U.S. EMBASSY IN MONROVIA CALLING FOR THE UNITED STATES TO INTERVENE MILITARILY TO END CIVIL WAR
- Title: LIBERIA/USA: LIBERIANS PROTEST IN FRONT OF THE U.S. EMBASSY IN MONROVIA CALLING FOR THE UNITED STATES TO INTERVENE MILITARILY TO END CIVIL WAR
- Date: 3rd July 2003
- Summary: (W5) MONROVIA, LIBERIA (JULY 3, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV HUNDREDS OF PROTESTERS RUNNING IN STREETS OF MONROVIA, HEADING TOWARDS THE UNITED STATES EMBASSY, CALLING FOR THE U.S. TO INTERVENE MILITARILY 0.04 2. LAS OF PROTESTERS RUNNING IN STREET, CHANTING 'WE WANT PEACE' 0.09 3. CU PROTESTER WAVING BANNER, PLACARD READING 'TAYLOR COME DOWN: THE LIBERIANS NEED PEACE' 0.13 4. SLV SECURITY IN PICKUP TRUCK 0.18 5. SLV PROTESTERS STAGING SIT-IN NEAR THE U.S. EMBASSY, SAYING 'DOWN DOWN TAYLOR, WE WANT PEACE' 0.25 6. CU PROTESTERS HOLDING PLACARD READING: 'WE NEED BUSH HELP, TAYLOR MUST GO!' 0.31 7. SV U.S. MARINES WATCHING FROM SANDBAGGED POSITION ON TOP OF U.S. EMBASSY WALL 0.34 8. SV OF PROTEST (2 SHOTS) 0.46 (W7) MONROVIA, LIBERIA (JULY 3, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. LV PRESIDENT'S CONVOY LEAVING THE PRESIDENCY BUILDING AND DRIVING PAST INJURED FIGHTERS PROTESTING 0.54 10. SLV INJURED FIGHTERS TRYING TO BLOCK THE ROAD 1.00 11. LV INJURED FIGHTER HITTING PASSING CAR WITH CRUTCHES 1.06 12. SLV INJURED FIGHTERS IN THE STREET (2 SHOTS) 1.20 13. LAS CROWD CLIMBING ON PASSING CAR 1.26 (W6) WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (JULY 3, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 14. SLV U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL WALKS OUT OF U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT WITH FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI 1.39 15. SV MEDIA 1.43 16. MCU (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL SAYING: "The president, as you've heard, is exploring all of the options, political options, diplomatic options and military options as well. We have provided the president no recommendation yet and therefore he has not made a decision. We believe strongly that President Taylor should leave and I have been in touch with leaders in the region and I've also been in touch with Secretary-General Kofi Annan and I expect to talk to him again today. We also realise that there is a severe humanitarian crisis emerging in Monrovia and in other parts of Liberia that has to be dealt with and we are concerned also about the security of our embassy officials. So all of these factors are being taken into consideration. We'll be discussing it among the national security team members today but we have made no recommendation to the president yet and therefore the president has not yet made a decision." 2.40 17. SLV OF POWELL AT PODIUM 2.47 18. SV POWELL SHAKES HANDS WITH GIULIANI AND OTHER U.S. OFFICIALS 3.00 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 18th July 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MONROVIA, LIBERIA / WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: Liberia USA United States
- Reuters ID: LVA55HLJDH2KDAR2BUDQDRPQ0VXX
- Story Text: Hundreds of Liberians have protested in front of the
U.S. embassy in Monrovia, calling for the United States to
intervene militarily and bring an end to 14 years of civil
war.
Meanwhile in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell has said that U.S. President Bush had not yet decided
whether to commit U.S. troops to Liberia, but reiterated that
President Taylor should leave the west African nation.
Pressure is growing for Liberia's President Charles
Taylor to step down and go into exile.
Hundreds of protesters ran in the streets of the war-torn
West African capital Monrovia on Thursday (July 3), waiving
green branches, a traditional symbol for peace in West Africa.
They gathered outside the heavily-fortified U.S. embassy
compound at Mamba point on the seafront, under the watchful
eyes of U.S. Marines, who packed additional sandbags around an
observation post on the roof.
The protesters called for President Taylor to step down.
Tension is now running high in the capital, a coastal city
filled with thousands of displaced people who fled their homes
during last month's bloody battles between rebels and Taylor's
troops.
In a second demonstration against the government in the
same day, 200 people, among them many injured, were blocking
the road until they were paid.
Liberia has been at war almost constantly since 1989, when
Taylor launched a rebellion that ended when he was elected
president in 1997. Along the way, he has fomented unrest in
Sierra Leone, looting the country's diamonds as he supported
some of the world's most notoriously vicious rebels.
Taylor won elections in 1997 after emerging dominant from
a war in which 200,000 died in the 1990s. His foes from that
conflict started a new struggle to oust him three years ago
and now control nearly two-thirds of the country.
After 14 years of almost non-stop war, Liberia is a ruined
international pariah, overrun by a generation of drugged-up,
drunken fighters who have spread chaos in the region.
Many Liberians think only U.S. troops can save them.
U.S. President George W. Bush, who is due to visit Africa
next week for the first time, has called on Taylor to quit
Liberia, a nation founded by freed American slaves in the 19th
century. The United States is considering sending troops to
help ensure peace.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has taken the
lead on contacts with the United Nations on Liberia, said Bush
had not taken a decision on military intervention and had not
even received any recommendations from his advisers.
"The president as you've heard is exploring all of the
options, political options, diplomatic options and military
options as well. We have provided the president no
recommendation yet and therefore he has not made a decision,"
Powell told reporters outside the U.S. State Department.
Bush is under pressure from Britain, U.N. officials and
Liberians to send peacekeepers to help enforce a fledgling
ceasefire in the country's 14-year civil war, and defence
officials are weighing deployment plans.
Powell repeated the U.S. position that Taylor should leave
office but he did not say what should become of him.
"We believe strongly that President Taylor should leave,"
Powell said, adding "We also realise that there is a severe
humanitarian crisis emerging in Monrovia and in other parts of
Liberia that has to be dealt with and we are concerned also
about the security of our embassy officials."
Powell said he expected to talk about Liberia with U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan later on Thursday (July 3).
Earlier on Thursday, the United States announced a $25
million reward for any information that leads to the capture
of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein or proves that he is
dead.
"It's authority that we have and we're using that
authority. We believe it is important to do everything we can
to determine his whereabouts, whether he is alive or dead, in
order to assist in stabilising the situation and letting the
people of Baghdad be absolutely sure that he's not coming
back. And this is just another tool to be used for that
purpose," Powell said.
More than three months after a U.S.-led war on Iraq toppled
Saddam, there is still no sign of the former Iraqi president -
who ruled over Iraq for a quarter of a century - or his sons.
Powell's comments came following talks with the U.S.
delegation to an anti-semitism conference in Europe, led by
former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
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