President Charles Taylor said on Friday he would bow to US demands that he step down from power and leave Liberia, but only after a US-led peacekeeping force arrived in the war-torn country.
"How long after?"
"'Bout fifteen years..." |
Demonstrators took to the streets of the capital Monrovia for the second day running to demand that Taylor quit immediately. Soldiers opened fire on the group of more than 500 protestors, wounding one of them, but they continued their march on the US embassy, chanting "Taylor kingdom must come down. Satan Taylor must go."
| That's Liberian for "The jig's up, Chuck! Pack your shit and get out!" |
The embattled president told Church leaders at a meeting in the Executive Mansion that he wanted international peacekeepers to arrive in Liberia before he left to allow for "a smooth transition of power". The Church leaders had presented him with a statement calling for peace in Liberia, which has suffered near constant civil war for the past 14 years. "It makes a lot of sense for peacekeepers to arrive in this city before I transit. I am not fighting to stay in power," Taylor said. "What I am fighting for right now is that there be a normal transition so that anger, frustration, deceit and other things don't creep in."
| I you leave, Chuck, anger, frustration, and deceit will creep out with you. |
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