Liberian riot police rubbed out up to four protestors during a rally in Monrovia, opposition leaders said Monday on the eve of a run-off vote they accuse President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of rigging.Four? Only four? Slow day in Liberia...
Shooting erupted after anti-riot police and UN peacekeepers using water cannons tried to block an unauthorised march by thousands of demonstrators supporting the opposition challenger Winston Tubman.
Tubman's call to boycott the second of the west African country's second post-war polls on Tuesday drew wide international condemnation and raised fears that Liberia was being dragged back to the dark days of civil war.
"Three or four were killed and many injured. They (police) came and started shooting at unarmed people who just wanted peace," said Tubman's running mate, former football star George Weah.
AFP journalists saw two bodies, including that of a man aged around 20 with a gunshot wound to the head at the Congress for Democratic Change headquarters.
One policeman at the scene said a protestor fired the first shot but an eye witness blamed the security forces for the flare-up and the man's death.
"He was standing in front of the building when a policeman shot and I saw him going down," said witness Anita Mulba.
George Weah, who lost to Sirleaf in 2005, was defiant and told journalists: "We are going to continue the march because we are not more important than those who have been killed."