LIBERIA: FRENCH SPECIAL FORCES HAVE SWOOPED INTO MONROVIA BY HELICOPTER TO AIRLIFT HUNDREDS OF FOREIGNERS TO SAFETY

Record ID: 647894

  • Title: LIBERIA: FRENCH SPECIAL FORCES HAVE SWOOPED INTO MONROVIA BY HELICOPTER TO AIRLIFT HUNDREDS OF FOREIGNERS TO SAFETY
  • Date: 9th June 2003
  • Summary: (W7) MONROVIA, LIBERIA (JUNE 9, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV FRENCH HELICOPTER LANDING IN EUROPEAN UNION COMPOUND 0.04 2. SV EVACUATED PEOPLE GOING TO HELICOPTER BEING HELPED BY FRENCH ARMY SPECIAL FORCES (4 SHOTS) 0.22 3. MCU FRENCH SPECIAL FORCES SECURING HELICOPTER TAKING OFF 0.30 4. SLV FOREIGN NATIONALS WAITING FOR NEXT HELICOPTER 0.34 5. SV FRENCH FORCES SECURING AREA (2 SHOTS) 0.40 6. SV EGYPTIAN EMBASSY STAFF WAITING FOR HELICOPTER 0.44 7. MCU (English) EGYPTIAN CHARGE D'AFFAIRES AHMED FARID SAYING: "As far as I know the people (the rebels) are in Monrovia and the fighting was very heavy during the last three days." 0.53 8. SV FRENCH ARMY SOLDIERS WATCHING FOREIGN NATIONALS WHILE HELICOPTER LANDS 0.59 9. LV FOREIGN NATIONALS HEADING TO HELICOPTER 1.09 10. GV/LV FLEEING PEOPLE CROSSING BRIDGE WITH SOUND OF SHOOTING (2 SHOTS) 1.22 11. GV MONROVIA WTH BLACK SMOKE IN BACKGROUND 1.27 12. GV LIBERIAN POLICE CAR WITH BLACK MARINES ABOARD, SOUND OF SHOOTING 1.35 13. TV OF MONROVIA STREET WITH CROWD OF PEOPLE LOOKING FOR SHELTER 1.38 14. SLV/SV OF PEOPLE CARRYING MATTRESSES AND BELONGINGS (2 SHOTS) 1.52 15. SV WOMAN CARRYING BAG ON HER HEAD PASSING UNITED STATES EMBASSY 1.58 16. CU U.S. EMBASSY SIGN AND BARBED WIRE 2.01 17. LAS U.S. MARINE STANDING ON EMBASSY ROOF WITH GUN 2.04 18. GV AMERICAN NATIONALS HEADING TO FRENCH HELICOPTER 2.08 19. LV UNITED STATES CITIZEN CARRYING LUGGAGE 2.13 20. SLV FRENCH FORCES HELPING AMERICANS GET INTO HELICOPTER 2.20 21. SLV U.S. AMBASSADOR JOHN BLANEY THANKING FRENCH SOLDIERS FOR HELPING EVACUATION 2.24 22. LV U.S. EMBASSY STAFF PASSING SANDBAGS TO SOLDIERS ON EMBASSY ROOF 2.29 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 24th June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MONROVIA, LIBERIA
  • Country: Liberia
  • Reuters ID: LVA4T5Y3WUF7V77SOWKY6JBU4BQF
  • Story Text: French special forces have swooped into Monrovia by
    helicopter to airlift hundreds of foreigners to safety as
    rebels creep closer to the centre of the Liberian capital.



    The thunder of mortars and heavy artillery echoed
    across the city on Monday (June 9) as French troops shuttled
    expatriates, many of them aid workers, to a naval vessel
    waiting off the West African coast.

    Smoke billowed over Monrovia's northwestern suburbs, under
    rebel attack for the fourth day running. A report from the
    U.N. regional information service IRIN said more than 100
    bodies were lying by one of the capital's main roads.

    Military sources said the rebel Liberians United for
    Reconciliation and Democracy launched a dawn strike on the
    city, despite promises to halt their offensive and give peace
    talks in Ghana a chance. LURD negotiators in Ghana declined
    comment.

    The rebels met with a government delegation for informal
    talks on Monday, but mediators from the West African regional
    body ECOWAS said negotiations were unlikely to get under way
    wholeheartedly until Wednesday.

    A team of mediators planned to set off on a diplomatic
    shuttle to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, where it would
    meet President Charles Taylor.

    "We will tell Taylor that ECOWAS is the only chance. He
    has to cooperate with us," Ghana's Foreign Minister Nana
    Akufo-Addo told Reuters.

    The rebels on Sunday gave Taylor a 72-hour ultimatum to
    step down. LURD and another rebel faction known as Model
    control around two thirds of Liberia, a country of three
    million.

    In Monrovia, thousands of people fleeing the fighting
    huddled outside the city's main soccer stadium, after
    wandering in the streets for days in search of shelter without
    food or drinking water.

    Fearing a repeat of the battles which left Monrovia's
    streets littered with bodies in the the 1990s, many called for
    a foreign force to stop the mayhem.

    Taylor has few friends within the international community.

    He has long been accused of orchestrating more than a decade
    of conflicts in West Africa and is accused of exporting
    Liberia's own strife into neighbouring Sierra Leone and Ivory
    Coast.

    Last week he was indicted by a U.N.-backed war crimes
    court for Sierra Leone.

    In spite of the pressure, regional diplomats say Taylor is
    likely to fight to the very end. They worry about the prospect
    of a three-way battle for Monrovia among forces split on
    tribal lines.

    Fleeing civilians say the rebels are as brutal as Taylor's
    militias.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register