CNN - Americans evacuated from war-torn Liberia

Americans evacuated from war-torn Liberia

Factions reportedly agree to cease-fire

April 9, 1996
Web posted at: 11:15 p.m. EDT (0315 GMT)

MONROVIA, Liberia (CNN) -- U.S. special forces Tuesday began airlifting Americans from Liberia's capital, where fierce fighting between rival ethnic factions erupted four days ago.

The Reuters news agency late Tuesday said the rival groups had agreed to a truce.

Earlier, Pentagon sources told CNN a U.S. MH-53 helicopter carrying 26 people from Monrovia landed safely two hours later in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and then returned to Liberia to pick up more evacuees.

The Pentagon is poised for a full-scale evacuation of the estimated 470 Americans from Liberia. Military officials said the emergency airlift is likely to continue through the night.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Bob Anderson told CNN an order for a "general evacuation" has been given.

A dozen countries, most of them European, have asked the United States for assistance in getting their citizens out of Liberia. The State Department said Tuesday that it was weighing those requests.

Sources said some 200 to 300 U.S. troops based at Brindisi, Italy, have been moved to Freetown to prepare for the evacuation operation.

Sources said the United States is also arranging to contract with a commercial ship to provide transportation for some Americans in embattled Monrovia.

Security bolstered at U.S. embassy

A U.S. Army military assessment team of six special forces personnel and a security enhancement team of 18 Navy SEALS has reached Monrovia to bolster security at the U.S. Embassy, according to Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon.

Rebels and the government are engaged in what is described as the fiercest fighting in Monrovia in three years. Liberia was founded by freed American slaves in 1847.

The clashes began Saturday with the attempted arrest of warlord Roosevelt Johnson for murder. Johnson was recently dismissed from the six-member ruling council. The council, which was set up under the latest of a long line of peace deals, includes main faction leaders and civilians.

The U.N. Security Council urged the rival factions to release all hostages unharmed and to re-establish a cease-fire and warned that unless they took immediate steps to comply, they risked losing the support of the international community.

'Security cannot be guaranteed' -- Pentagon

Bacon said the Pentagon estimates there are about 470 U.S. citizens in Liberia, 110 of whom are said to be at the U.S. Embassy or its related compounds. He said the rest are at various locations in the city.

Of the 470, only 38 are U.S. government officials, Bacon said. The rest are private citizens.

Up to 20,000 Liberian civilians, fearing that the clashes will grow into a full-scale civil war, have taken shelter in a U.S. embassy annex. Diplomats said some overseas-based nationals are in the main U.S. embassy compound.

Asked if U.S. citizens are in any danger there, Bacon said, "my understanding is that the two factions -- the two major factions -- have made it clear that they are not interested in attacking Americans. They are interested in attacking each other".

Break in fighting

A break in fighting brought some respite Tuesday afternoon, but witnesses said besieged fighters loyal to Johnson continued to hold several hundred civilians and about 20 peacekeepers hostage in a city center barracks.

Diplomats, officials and witnesses said 34 Lebanese, mostly women and children, about 20 Nigerian peacekeepers and several hundred Liberians were being held in the barracks, where Johnson had reportedly taken refuge.

The six-year-old war among several rebel factions has killed more than 150,000 people and left at least half the country's 2.3 million residents homeless. A peace deal struck last August was supposed to pave the way for elections this year.

U.S. Ambassador to Liberia William Milam said he believed the peace process is in "very bad shape." "It's on the rocks and if this violence continues, it's going to be extremely difficult to put it together, I think."

West African peacekeepers sent in by the Economic Community of West African States are patrolling parts of the city, which has been rocked by sustained bursts of shooting and occasional mortar, artillery and rocket-propelled grenade blasts.

There was no reliable casualty toll from the recent burst of fighting. Reuters quoted medical aid workers as saying at least six people were dead and 40 wounded.

A recent history of instability

In 1990, a rebel alliance toppled then-dictator Samuel Doe after almost a year of fighting. The alliance soon disintegrated as various warlords battled for political power and financial gain.

Among them was Charles Taylor, the dominant figure in Liberia's ruling council. Under Taylor's orders, forces moved in to arrest rival warlord Johnson over the weekend on charges of murder.

Johnson escaped and is now getting support from ethnic Krahn militiamen.

Whether the self-styled General Johnson can ignite a new ethnic conflict remains unclear. Many of the teen-agers who have carried on the fight are exhausted. Innocent civilians, who watched others being slaughtered by all sides during the civil war, also dread a return to the conflict.

While looting has been a reward for victorious troops in the past, experts say Liberia has virtually nothing left, and fresh fighting only slams the door on future international investment.

CNN Correspondents Jim Clancy and Jamie McIntyre, the Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:

U.S. readies for possible evacuation in Monrovia
Civilians prepare to flee Liberia as fighting continues

Related sites:

Liberia homem page
Liberia Information