Many Flee Liberia as Clash Destroys Towns, Envoys Say

Fighting between Liberian forces and rebels opposed to the West African country's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, has devastated two towns in northeastern Liberia and sent thousands fleeing across the border, Western diplomats said today. The fighting began in the Nimba region, where according to General Doe, two groups of rebels entered Dec. 24 from the neighboring Ivory Coast.

One of the groups killed a police sergeant at the border town of Butuo before Government forces intervened, General Doe said on Tuesday. The other group reached Liberia's capital, Monrovia, but abandoned their weapons and surrendered, he said. One diplomat said the towns of Kahntle and Butuo were destroyed in the fighting. A Western diplomat in Monrovia, reached by telephone, said today that most of the rebels had reportedly fled or been killed or captured. But other diplomats said it could take time for the Government to dislodge all of the rebels from the sparsely populated region, which is about 100 miles northeast of Monrovia. Nimba was also the scene of abortive uprisings in 1985 and 1988.

Diplomats said it was difficult to determine how many Liberians were fleeing the fighting because the border area is heavily wooded and communications are poor. "People are trying to get out of the contested area," one diplomat said. "The number, however, is anyone's guess."

J. Emmanuel Bowier, Liberia's Information Minister, refused today to comment on the fighting. The official Liberian News Agency reported that General Doe would visit the region, which is under a dusk-to-dawn curfew. General Doe said on Thursday that the situation in the Nimba region was beginning to stabilize. He invited journalists to visit the area, but "at their own risk, as military operations were continuing."

Justice Minister Jenkins Scott said earlier this week that a total of 96 rebels had invaded Liberia from the Ivory Coast. He asserted that they had been trained in Burkina Faso and Libya. The Ivory Coast has repeatedly denied charges by Liberia that it provides a haven for General Doe's opponents. Burkina Faso also denied any role in the invasion.

The rebels, who are calling themselves the National Patriotic Front, are led by Charles Taylor, a former civil servant in General Doe's Government. A diplomat said that the group appeared to have no connection with Liberia's opposition parties. A man identifying himself as Charles Taylor called the British Broadcasting Corporation's African service on Monday to say that he was behind the invasion. Mr. Taylor reportedly lived as a fugitive in the United States in recent years as Liberian officials sought his extradition.

General Doe, formerly a master sergeant in Liberia's army, has withstood several coup attempts. He came to power himself in a 1980 coup in which President William R. Tolbert, a descendant of freed American slaves, and many of his political allies were put to death on a beach near the capital. General Doe has dismissed the Interior Minister, Col. Edward Sackor, for discounting a recent warning that opponents were preparing to attack.

Source: New York Times