Ousted Haitian Leader Signs Pact With Old Rival

Nearly five months after he was ousted in a coup, the exiled Haitian President, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, signed an agreement today with a former political rival who is now his Prime Minister, pledging to form a "government of national unity" and to begin a timetable for the President's return to Haiti.

With a formal accord in place, diplomats say Father Aristide, who was deposed by the military under Lieut. Gen. Raoul Cedras, may also be more willing to compromise on the army chief's future. In an interview on the ABC News program "Nightline" on Monday night, Father Aristide spoke of removing General Cedras, whom he calls a common criminal unqualfied for amnesty, by constitutional means as part of an army reorganization.

Before leaving Washington, where they have been talking since Friday, Father Aristide and his Prime Minister-designate, Rene Theodore, agreed to meet again in a month to discuss a multi-party cabinet as well as the mechanics of the President's return.

In the meantime, the two leaders -- Father Aristide in exile in Venezuela and Mr. Theodore in Haiti -- are to consult regularly. Before returning to Caracas, the exiled President left today for Geneva, where he is to address a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

The accord signed by the two leaders provides for the sending of an international human rights team to Haiti to strengthen protection for civil liberties before Father Aristide returns. The Organization of American States has put together a list of about 60 potential members of a democracy mission similar to one sent to Nicaragua in 1990 to observe electoral politics, defuse crises, resettle rebels and verify accords.

Father Aristide, who won 67 percent of the votes in December 1990, has in effect exchanged some of this mandate for a compromise solution that gives him a far greater chance of returning. Many of his supporters are sharply critical of the accords signed this weekend because they are perceived as cutting into the President's legitimate powers. The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington policy group, called the agreement with leaders of Parliament "a near-total defeat for Haitian democracy."

A statement by the council said: "As a combined result of ineffectual actions taken by the State Department, the regional organization and the European Community, which never respected the embargo, Aristide was effectively left with no option but to mutilate his own stature by signing away his powers in exchange for the still uncertain prospect of his restoration to what will now be a figurehead presidency."

The Haitian Embassy here, which has remained loyal to the ousted President, disagrees, saying that the President will enjoy all the rights and privileges granted by the Constitution. U.S. to Help the Lawmen. In an interview with the Voice of America, which has expanded broadcasts to Haiti in recent months, Bernard W. Aronson, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, said the United States was ready to assist Haiti in professionalizing its army and police.

Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, believes that the Bush Administration did not do enough to dislodge Haiti's military rulers earlier, thus forcing Father Aristide to compromise his party and program. "What the military thugs down there understand is that they have got a nod and a wink from the U.S. Government," Mr. Conyers said in an interview today after introducing legislation that would give Haitian refugees safe haven in the United States until democracy is restored. "If you wanted to see an end to this mobster rule," he continued, "ban air travel to the United States, impose a blockade on Haitian ships into Miami, ask for a United Nations task force."

On Wednesday, the House will consider his legislation and other proposals to grant what is known as "temporary protected status" to Haitians.

Source: New York Times

THE END OF THE SOVIET UNION; Text of Accords by Former Soviet Republics Setting Up a Commonwealth

Following are the texts of declarations signed Saturday in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, at the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, as distributed in translation by the Tass press agency. The first five declarations were signed by all 11 leaders of the republics joining the commonwealth, and the sixth, on nuclear arms, was signed by the leaders of the four republics that have nuclear arms on their soil.

PROTOCOL TO COMMONWEALTH PACT

The Azerbaijani Republic, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Byelorussia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Kirghizia, the Republic of Moldavia, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tadzhikistan, Turkmenia, the Republic of Uzbekistan and Ukraine, on an equal basis, and as high contracting parties, are forming a Commonwealth of Independent States.

The agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States comes into force for each of the high contracting parties from the moment of its ratification. Documents regulating cooperation in the framework of the commonwealth will be worked out on the basis of the agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, taking into consideration reservations made during its ratification.

This protocol is a constituent part of the agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Done in Alma-Ata, on Dec. 21, 1991, in one copy in the Azerbaijani, Armenian, Byelorussian, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Moldavian, Russian, Tadzhik, Turkmen, Uzbek and Ukrainian languages. All texts are equally valid. The authentic copy is kept in the archive of the government of the republic of Byelorussia, which will send the certified copy of this protocol to the high contracting parties.

ALMA-ATA DECLARATION

THE INDEPENDENT STATES -- the Azerbaijani Republic, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Byelorussia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Kirghizia, the Republic of Moldavia, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tadzhikistan, Turkmenia, the Republic of Uzbekistan and Ukraine,

SEEKING to build democratic law-governed states, the relations between which will develop on the basis of mutual recognition and respect for state sovereignty and sovereign equality, the inalienable right to self-determination, principles of equality and non-interference in internal affairs, the rejection of the use of force, the threat of force and economic and any other methods of pressure, a peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for human rights and freedoms, including the rights of national minorities, a conscientious fulfillment of commitments and other generally recognized principles and standards of international law;

RECOGNIZING AND RESPECTING each other's territorial integrity and the inviolability of the existing borders;

BELIEVING that the strengthening of the relations of friendship, good neighborliness and mutually advantageous cooperation, which has deep historic roots, meets the basic interests of nations and promotes the cause of peace and security;

BEING AWARE of their responsibility for the preservation of civil peace and inter-ethnic accord;

BEING LOYAL to the objectives and principles of the agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States;

ARE MAKING the following statement:

Cooperation between members of the commonwealth will be carried out in accordance with the principle of equality through coordinating institutions formed on a parity basis and operating in the way established by the agreements between members of the commonwealth, which is neither a state nor a super-state structure. In order to insure international strategic stability and security, allied command of the military-strategic forces and a single control over nuclear weapons will be preserved, the sides will respect each other's desire to attain the status of a non-nuclear or neutral state.

The Commonwealth of Independent States is open, with the agreement of all its participants, for other states to join -- members of the former Soviet Union as well as other states sharing the goals and principles of the commonwealth. The allegiance to cooperation in the formation and development of the common economic space, and all-European and Eurasian markets is being confirmed. With the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceases to exist.

Member states of the commonwealth guarantee, in accordance with their constitutional procedures, the fulfillment of international obligations stemming from the treaties and agreements of the former U.S.S.R. Member states of the commonwealth pledge to observe strictly the principles of this declaration.

ON THE MILITARY

Proceeding from the provision, sealed in the agreement on the establishment of a Commonwealth of Independent States and in the Alma-Ata declaration, for keeping the common military-strategic space under a joint command and for keeping a single control over nuclear weapons, the high contracting parties agreed on the following: The command of the armed forces shall be entrusted to Marshal Yevgeny I. Shaposhnikov, pending a solution to the question of reforming the armed forces. Proposals concerning this question shall be submitted by Dec. 30, 1991, for the consideration of the heads of state.

ON INSTITUTIONS

A supreme body of the commonwealth -- a "Council of the Heads of State" -- as well as a "Council of the Heads of Government" shall be set up with a view to tackling matters connected with coordinating the activities of the states of the new commonwealth in the sphere of common interests. The plenipotentiary representatives of the states of the new commonwealth shall be instructed to submit proposals concerning the abolition of the structures of the former Soviet Union, as well as the coordinating institutions of the commonwealth for the consideration of the Council of the Heads of State.

ON U.N. MEMBERSHIP

Member states of the commonwealth, referring to Article 12 of the agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States,

PROCEEDING from the intention of each of the states to fulfill its duties stipulated by the U.N. Charter and to take part in the work of that organization as equal members;

TAKING into account that previously the Republic of Byelorussia, the U.S.S.R. and Ukraine were members of the United Nations organization;

EXPRESSING satisfaction that the Republic of Byelorussia and Ukraine continue to be U.N. members as sovereign independent states;

BEING full of resolve to promote the consolidation of world peace and security on the basis of the U.N. Charter in the interests of their nations and the whole of the world community;

HAVE DECIDED:

1. Member states of the commonwealth support Russia in taking over the U.S.S.R. membership in the U.N., including permanent membership in the Security Council and other international organizations.

2. The Republic of Byelorussia, the Russian Federation and Ukraine will help other member states of the commonwealth settle problems connected with their full membership in the U.N. and other international organizations.

Done in Alma-Ata on Dec. 21, 1991, in one copy in the Azerbaijani, Armenian, Byelorussian, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Moldavian, Russian, Tadzhik, Turkmen, Uzbek and Ukrainian languages. All texts have equal force. the original copy will be kept in the archive of the Government of the Republic of Byelorussia, which will send the high contracting parties a certified copy of this protocol.

For the Azerbaijani Republic A. MUTALIBOV

For the Republic of Byelorussia S. SHUSHKEVICH

For the Republic of Armenia L. TER -PETROSYAN

For the Republic of Kazakhstan N. NAZARBAYEV

For the Republic of Kirghizia A. AKAYEV

For the Republic of Moldavia M. SNEGUR

For the Russian Federation B. YELTSIN,

For the Republic of Tadzhikistan R. NABIYEV

For Turkmenia S. NIYAZOV

For the Republic of Uzbekistan I. KARIMOV

For Ukraine L. KRAVCHUK ON NUCLEAR ARMS

Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, called henceforth member states,

CONFIRMING their adherence to the non-proliferation of nuclear armaments;

STRIVING for the elimination of all nuclear armaments, and

WISHING to act to strengthen international stability, have agreed on the following:

Article 1: The nuclear armaments that are part of the unified strategic armed forces insure the collective security of all members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Article 2: The member states of this agreement confirm the obligation not to be the first to use nuclear weapons.

Article 3: The member states of this agreement are jointly drawing up a policy on nuclear matters.

Article 4: Until nuclear weapons have been completely eliminated on the territory of the Republic of ByeloRussia and Ukraine, decisions on the need to use them are taken, by agreement with the heads of the member states of the agreement, by the R.S.F.S.R. [ Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic ] President, on the basis of procedures drawn up jointly by the member states.

Article 5:1: The republics of Byelorussia and Ukraine undertake to join the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty as non-nuclear states and to conclude with the International Atomic Energy Agency the appropriate agreements-guarantees,

Article 5:2: The member states of this agreement undertake not to transfer to anyone nuclear weapons or other triggering devices and technologies, or control over such nuclear triggering devices, either directly or indirectly, as well as not in any way to help, encourage and prompt any state not possessing nuclear weapons to produce nuclear weapons or other nuclear triggering devices, and also control over such weapons or triggering devices.

Article 5:3: The provisions of paragraph 2 of this article do not stand in the way of transferring nuclear weapons from Byelorussia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to R.S.F.S.R. territory with a view to destroying them.

Article 6: The member states of this agreement, in accordance with the international treaty, will assist in the eliminating of nuclear weapons. By July 1, 1992 Byelorussia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine will insure the withdrawal of tactical nuclear weapons to central factory premises for dismantling under joint supervision.

Article 7: The Governments of Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Ukraine undertake to submit a treaty on strategic offensive arms for ratification to the Supreme Soviets of their states.

Article 8: This agreement requires ratification. It will come into force on the 30th day after the handing over of all ratification papers to the government of the R.S.F.S.R. for safekeeping.

Done in Alma-Ata in one certified copy in Byelorussian, Kazakh, Russian and Ukrainian languages, all texts being equally authentic.

Source: New York Times

U.N. Assembly Calls for the Restoration of Haiti's Ousted President

Strongly condemning the military coup in Haiti, the General Assembly called today for the immediate restoration of the democratically elected Government of the exiled President, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but made no move to request that peacekeeping forces be sent to the area.

After delegates from around the world denounced the military takeover in Haiti and expressed support for Father Aristide, who was ousted Sept. 30, the Assembly unanimously approved without a vote a resolution demanding his immediate return to office, full application of the Constitution and full observance of human rights in Haiti.

The resolution, introduced by the Foreign Minister Roberto Flores Bermudez of Honduras, as chairman of the Latin American and Caribbean Group, also declared "unacceptable" any entity resulting from the illegal situation and expressed support for measures taken by the Organization of American States.

Later, Haiti's delegate to the United Nations, Fritz E. Longchamp, said at a news conference that he was very satisfied with the resolution, which he said "from a moral and political standpoint, is very important. We're not looking for military action to solve the problem," the Haitian delegate said. He stressed that Father Aristide wanted a peaceful solution to the problem and had called on the people to resist by nonviolent means.

In the Assembly debate, the United States delegate, Thomas R. Pickering, declared that his Government "does not and will not recognize the self-appointed junta which has illegally usurped power in Haiti." He said the United States strongly supported efforts by the Organization of American States to resolve the crisis and restore Father Aristide's "legitimate, constitutional rule."

There was no indication in Mr. Pickering's statement that the United States was moving away from its unequivocal support of the ousted President. Some Administration officials last week criticized Father Aristide for what they said was his condoning of mob violence by his supporters.

The French delegate here, Jean-Bernard Merimee, called the recent move by the military leaders in Haiti to name a provisional President "a second coup d'etat." He said President Aristide, who was elected with a large majority through free, United Nations-supervised elections, respresented "the only legitimate constitutional order."

In a strong statement of support for the Aristide Government, Canada's Secretary of State for External Affairs, Barbara McDougall, expressed "anxiety and outrage" over the evolving tragedy in Haiti. "We cannot accept that military intervention is the means to an end and that the people's will is overturned by the interests of a few," the Canadian official said. She urged all countries to join the O.A.S. in its effort to restore constitutional stability in the region, including a trade embargo on Haiti except for humanitarian aid.

Haiti's provisional President moved to form a new government today, announcing the appointment of Jean-Jacques Honorat as Prime Minister. Mr. Honorat is a civil rights leader and staunch foe of the deposed President, Father Aristide.

A terse announcement on the national radio said only that "Jean-Jacques Honorat is named Prime Minister."

The provisional President, Joseph Nerette, issued a call for Parliament to meet on Saturday to ratify the appointment of Mr. Honorat, a lawyer, agronomist and leader of the Haitian Center for Human Rights.

He was known to be the most popular choice among lawmakers, who met privately all day on Thursday to consider canidates from a list sumbitted by Mr. Nerette. Parliamentary approval is considered to be virtually assured.

Source: New York Times

IN POLICY SHIFT, U.S. CRITICIZES HAITIAN ON RIGHTS ABUSES

Administration officials have begun to move away from the unequivocal support they have voiced for the ousted Haitian President, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, citing concerns over his human rights record.

After Father Aristide was ousted in a coup last Monday, President Bush and Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d both demanded his reinstatement as President with no conditions. But today, officials said they had concluded that Father Aristide must publicly disavow mob violence and work toward sharing power with the Parliament. Such acts, Administration officials said, are necessary if he is to gain the Haitian and international support he needs to return to office.

With this shift, the officials, who had said his reinstatement was necessary for the hemisphere's democracies to resist a comeback of military rule, are now hinting that Father Aristide is at least in part to blame for his fall from office. While strongly criticizing the Haitian military for carrying out the coup, these officials now concede that Father Aristide's condoning and even encouragement of vigilante justice by mobs of his supporters in the streets has jeopardized his moral authority and popularity. Aristide Denounces Violence

After meeting with a high-level delegation from the Organization of American States here this morning, Father Aristide made a short statement in French to reporters, in which he denounced violence in Haiti by all parties, including, specifically, vigilante killings in which tires are placed around the necks of victims and then set on fire.. He also called on Haitians to respect the Constitution and human rights, thanked the O.A.S. for its efforts and said he would welcome some sort of presence by the organization in Haiti.

Father Aristide, a 38-year-old Roman Catholic priest, became the nation's first democratically elected president in December when he won 67 percent of the vote in a popular election.

In Haiti tonight, the Parliament moved toward naming an interim president to form a coalition cabinet and negotiate the return of Father Aristide. The goal was apparently not only to reinstate him but also to put conditions on his return that would force him to work with other Haitian institutions and leaders and to avoid any human rights violations. The reasons for the sudden refocusing of Administration concerns from placing full blame for the current crisis on the military to criticism of Father Aristide were not immediately clear. The new criticism of Father Aristide would put the Administration in a more favorable position to negotiate with the Haitian Army.

Underscoring the change in attitude, American officials are beginning to quietly disclose a thick notebook detailing accounts of human rights abuses that took place during Father Aristide's rule. The Administration has apparently been aware of the human rights violations for some time, but officials are only now beginning to emphasize them in their remarks to reporters. That point was driven home in meetings that the O.A.S. delegation held in Haiti last week with business and political leaders who complained that Father Aristide had failed to nurture the country's new democratic institutions. Several suggested that he was trying to develop another dictatorship with his own militia, and that he was at least indirectly responsible for scores of political killings.

The eight members of the O.A.S. delegation, which includes Bernard W. Aronson, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American affairs, returned to Washington this morning to meet with Father Aristide for nearly three hours. The members told Father Aristide that they had heard widespread concerns in Haiti from people who accused him of excesses in his rule.

An official close to the delegation said the members had strongly suggested that he speak out against mob violence and in favor of constitutional rule. The official said they had also advised him to "begin a dialogue" with Haitian parliamentary leaders to discuss the outlines of what kind of O.A.S. presence Haiti would accept to avert future human rights violations. "Part of the equation for putting him back in his rightful place and reaching a solution," a State Department official said, "is for him to assure all Haitians that he will not tolerate or condone the mob violence that has taken place."

The official added, "There is a generalized fear down there that the mobs that sometimes act for President Aristide's Lavalas movement have been tolerated or condoned by him." Officials stressed that while Haitian soldiers had used violence against crowds, Father Aristide's forces had also used force and murdered.

In a speech Father Aristide made late last month on the steps of the Presidential Palace, he appeared to agree to the lynching of opponents with tires placed around their necks then set afire. He said burning rubber produced "such a nice smell."

The small cracks that are beginning to emerge in American support for Father Aristide underscore the quandary the Administration faces in Haiti. For years Father Aristide complained bitterly that United States support had maintained the Duvalier family dictatorship in power. Despite Father Aristide's anti-Americanism and socialist inclinations, when he won overwhelmingly in Haiti's first free election, the Administration embraced him as an agent for democratic change.

Mr. Bush has placed less emphasis on the Caribbean basin than did President Ronald Reagan, but a number of senior officials including Vice President Dan Quayle and Mr. Aronson have given special attention to the island. These officials have expressed concern that the failure of democracy in Haiti could embolden other militaries in the region, while it could set off a civil war and a quickening migration of Haitians to the United States.

When Father Aristide was overthrown last week, the Administration was faced with the first test of Mr. Bush's new world order in the Western Hemisphere. It quickly intervened to demand that the army protect Father Aristide's life and allow him to leave the country. And some senior American officials would not discount the possibility that military force might have to be employed to put Father Aristide back in power.

Source: New York Times

Haiti's Military Assumes Power After Troops Arrest the President

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first freely elected president, was ousted tonight by the military, the army commander said. A Government official said Mr. Aristide was taken to the airport to be deported to France, adding that the United States Ambassador, Alvin Adams, accompanied Mr. Aristide to the airport.

Brig. Gen. Raul Cedras announced in a broadcast at 11 P.M. that the military had assumed control, following a day of violence in which at least 26 people were killed. "Today, the armed forces find themselves obligated to assume the heavy responsibility to keep the ship of state afloat," General Cedras said. "After seven months of democratic experience, the country once again finds itself a prey to the horrors of uncertainty," he added. "With all Haitians we will bring the ship to port."

The takeover began with mutinies at an army base and a police station Sunday night. Rebellious soldiers fired on Mr. Aristide's private residence at daybreak and on his entourage as it later headed to the National Palace. The soldiers later seized the palace and captured Mr. Aristide. His foreign minister, Jean-Robert Sabalat, said the President was taken to army headquarters. Diplomatic sources said Venezuelan, French and United States officials had negotiated to save the President's life.

A prominent Haitian politician, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, said Prime Minister Rene Preval and Information Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue also had been arrested.

General Cedras, 42, became provisional Commander-in-Chief of the army on July 3, when Mr. Aristide named him to replace Lieut. Gen. Herard Abraham. The retirement of General Abraham was described at the time as bolstering Mr. Aristide's control over the military. "The armed forces of Haiti insist on reaffirming that it is an apolitical institution at the service of the Haitian people," General Cedras said in his statement, carried on Radio France Internationale. "It will respect constitutional order, guarantee democratic liberty and will not condone any act of pillage and even less so the flaming tire necklace execution."

General Cedras urged the population to help create a "serene climate favorable to the next election." A powerful sector of Haiti's 7,000-member army has long opposed the leftist policies of Mr. Aristide, a Roman Catholic priest who draws much of his popularity from the impoverished masses. The leaders of the military takeover today charged that Mr. Aristide was interfering in army affairs.

At least 26 people were killed and 200 wounded as Aristide loyalists battled soldiers. The sounds of gunfire continued late into the night. International Reaction The United States and Canada condemned the coup attempt and demanded Mr. Aristide's release. The Organization of American States demanded that Mr. Aristide be returned to office and said those who arrested him would be held accountable. It called a meeting of leaders within the next 10 days to consider options that could include the use of force.

The United Nations Security Council convened in a late-night session. The uprising occurred four days after Mr. Aristide addressed the United Nations General Assembly his first trip to the United States since becoming president of this coup-prone Caribbean nation. He said at the time that he was certain Haiti had left the dark days of dictatorship behind.

Mr. Aristide's visit to New York, a city where there are 300,000 people of Haitian descent, the largest population outside the Caribbean nation itself, touched off carnival-like celebrations. In his address to the United Nations, he stressed peace and human rights themes.

Among those killed when the unrest first flared Sunday night was Sylvio Claude, an evangelical preacher and two-time presidential candidate. Only one of more than a dozen radio stations in Haiti, Radio Soleil, which is run by the Catholic Church, continued to broadcast news after Mr. Aristide was seized. Some stations shut down after being strafed by gunfire, and others switched to music-only formats.

State television broadcast test patterns. The international airport was closed Monday afternoon. Mr. Aristide, a 38-year-old parish priest, had been at home with aides and a bodyguard at the time of the first attack, the government said.

Radio Cacique, an independent station, said an armored personel carrier was attacked when it went to Aristide's home to take him to the National Palace from his residence in La Plaine, six miles from Port-au-Prince.

The trouble began Sunday night with mutinies at an army training camp at Freres, just outside Port-au-Prince, and at an army-run police station in the downtown area of the capital. Shortly before midnight Sunday, the head of Radio Nationale, Michel Favard, went on the air to say a government official told him a coup was believed under way. Mr. Favard is a longtime Aristide aide. Minutes later, six soldiers burst into the station, handcuffed Mr. Favard and took him away, sources at the radio station said. An unidentified soldier, speaking on Radio Soleil, said the rebels had issued seven demands. One was that the Government disband a unit of 50 civilians reportedly being trained by the Swiss as a commandos. Some in the army feared the unit was being trained as an elite militia under Mr. Aristide's direct command.

The rebels also demanded that the Government confirm the appointment of nine officers assigned on an interim basis to the Army High Command. Mr. Aristide had been scheduled to pay a call on President Bush next week in the Oval Office, according to an official traveling with Mr. Bush on a campaign trip in New Orleans.

Mr. Aristide has moved since the first day of his administration to shake up the notoriously corrupt army, historically an agent of repression in Haiti. Upon assuming office, he replaced generals from the Army High Command with younger officers more inclined toward democracy, but has not made the appointments permanent. Delay of Confirmation

Dissident soldiers say Mr. Aristide has been withholding permanent assignment to ensure the generals remain under his control. Mr. Claude, the 57-year-old former presidential candidate, was set upon by a mob in the southern provincial town of Cayes as he was leaving a political meeting Sunday night. Assailants burned him in the streets, according to Radio Antilles, an independent station.

Prime Minister Rene Preval blamed the unrest on remnants of the Tonton Macoutes, the outlawed militia that brutally enforced the rule of the late President Francois Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier.

Street demonstrations in support of Mr. Aristide turned violent here tonight as hundreds of people in the "Little Haiti" neighborhood threw rocks and bottles at police officers and looted stores. The police, who dispersed the demonstrators with tear gas, said crowds in the neighborhood seized several cars and set them on fire, broke into stores and carried away furniture and other items, which were then used to keep bonfires burning.

The Police Chief, Calvin Ross, said that there had been some arrests and that one patrol car had been burned, but he reported no deaths or serious injuries. Demonstrators had taken to the streets upon hearing reports that Mr. Aristide was in military custody. The Haitian President visited Miami on Thursday to thank the large community of Haitians and Haitian-Americans for its support of him and his reform program.

The police, fearing violence like that which broke out in 1986 here during a similar period of political instability in Haiti, were called in quickly. But the police were under orders not to use live ammunition to break up the crowds. "We want Aristide," chanted demonstrators as they marched down the main street of "Little Haiti." Others shouted slogans blaming President Bush, who was in Miami today, and the C.I.A. for the military uprising. Some demanded American intervention to restore Mr. Aristide to power.

About 2,000 angry Haitians demonstrated outside the United Nations building in New York City last night in response to the arrest of President Aristide. A police spokesman, Officer Andrew McInnis, said the demonstration began at about 6 P.M. and lasted until past midnight. There were no arrests. "We want to challenge the U.N. to back up our President," said one of the protesters, Marie D. Volny, who has lived in Brooklyn since 1970. The protesters sang, danced, chanted and waved banners denouncing the coup.

Source: New York Times

Corruption and Governance

Corruption and governance are increasingly becoming topical issues in African politics. Donors and international financial institutions are also increasingly utilizing the concepts of corruption and governance as conditionalities for granting financial aid.

Recent scholarly research has also found these concepts to be key determinants of a country’s global competitiveness. Although related, governance and anti-corruption are distinct notions. While corruption is defined by instances of abuse of entrusted power for private gain, governance embodies the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised for the common good. Compared to corruption, the scope of the concept of governance is generally broader, spanning issues of public policy and decision-making, transparency and access to information, enhancing state performance, and matters relating to social justice, rights and the rule of law.

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) was originally established as the Institute for Defence Policy by Dr Jakkie Cilliers, and Mr PB Mertz in 1991 and has offices in Pretoria, Cape Town, Nairobi and Addis Ababa.

Source: Institute for Security Studies

Liberian Rebels Said to Seize A Sierra Leone Border Bridge

Guerrillas of the Liberian rebel leader Charles Taylor have taken control of an important border bridge in neighboring Sierra Leone, a Taylor spokesman said today. The spokesman, Ernest Eastman, said the Taylor troops had pushed up to 15 miles inside Sierra Leone to block an attack by remnants of forces loyal to the slain Liberian President, Samuel K. Doe.

Sierra Leone says Mr. Taylor is trying to force it to end support for a six-nation peacekeeping force that has blocked him from advancing on Monrovia, the Liberian capital. Mr. Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia invaded Liberia on Dec. 24, 1989, from the Ivory Coast to bring down the Doe Government. The rebels met little resistance from Government forces until they reached the outskirts of Monrovia.

Source: New York Times

SOVIETS RECOGNIZE BALTIC INDEPENDENCE, ENDING 51-YEAR OCCUPATION OF 3 NATIONS

The Soviet Union's new ruling council recognized the independence of the three Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, today at its first meeting. The move formally freed the three small republics, which were incorporated forcibly into the Soviet Union in 1940 but renewed their drive for independence in the era of glasnost. Their campaign was bitterly resisted by Moscow until last month, when central controls unraveled in the wake of the failed coup and a procession of foreign governments granted the Baltics diplomatic recognition. In matching proclamations for the three republics, the council also called for negotiations on disentangling the complex economic, political and military ties between the new states and the rest of the Soviet Union.

The declarations were the first action by the State Council, a committee of republic leaders and President Mikhail S. Gorbachev that was granted sweeping emergency powers by the national Congress on Thursday to control the rapid disintegration of the Soviet Union. The proclamations were read later in the day by Foreign Minister Boris D. Pankin. Other changes continued to reverberate in the wake of the failed coup, with the city of Leningrad winning a battle to change its name back to the original St. Petersburg. The move, approved by residents in a referendum in June, was formally affirmed today in a decree of the Russian federated republic's Parliament, the press agency Tass reported.

Mr. Pankin reported, for example, that the chairman of the Georgian Parliament had attended part of the session, although Georgia had not necessarily been expected to take part. The Soviet news reports indicated that the main order of business, aside from independence for the Baltic states, was to initiate action on the nation's two most urgent concerns: the economy and the military. The decision on the Baltic republics effectively acknowledges a fait accompli, since more than 60 nations, including the United States, had already recognized the three states since the coup and Western ambassadors were already taking up residence.

Official Soviet recognition of the Baltic states had been expected at the Congress of People's Deputies, but republic leaders evidently decided not to raise the issue in the assembly for fear of increasing the momentum for secessionist moves in other regions.

The proclamations declared that Moscow would support the entry of the three republics into the United Nations. All three declared their hope of becoming integrated into Europe and the "world community."

Source: New York Times

SECESSION DECREED BY SOVIET GEORGIA

The republic of Georgia declared its independence today, further confounding President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's uncertain hold on the deeply troubled Soviet nation. The unanimous decision by the southern republic's Parliament was made in a surprise session in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, nine days after a plebisicite in the republic in which more than 98 percent of the voters favored independence. The Parliament's action was timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the killing of 19 civilian protesters at the hands of Soviet troops in Tbilisi.

The declaration turned the anniversary day of mourning into a street festival that continued long into the night as Georgians congratulated one another and celebrated a further step in regaining a freedom they counted lost since 1921, when Bolshevik troops first occupied the republic. But the parliamentary vote was not the final step, as the Georgian President, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, conceded in his celebration speech when he declared that "this act of independence is not a de facto withdrawal from the Soviet Union." He said it would have to be followed in the next two or three years by a series of legal steps to fully establish self-rule.

Still, for President Gorbachev, the declaration was another blow against his campaign to preserve the Soviet Union as a nation of heavily centralized authority and not as the federation of largely sovereign or independent republics that a dozen separatist movements are demanding of him. Georgia is a proud, ancient land of five million people, many of whom have long made clear their animus toward Communism and the Kremlin's central rule. Its long-established, long-suppressed independence drive gained considerable momentum in elections last year, when the Communists lost control of the Parliament to an insurgent coalition led by Mr. Gamsakhurdia.

As a practical matter, the declaration did not radically alter the current state of confusion over power sharing between the Kremlin and the republics, and in fact only compounded it. Mr. Gorbachev has been trying to interest the republics in his proposal for a new union treaty, which he has promised would insure greater self-rule, but many republics are skeptical, particularly in the face of the Gorbachev Government's continuing resort to central authority in dealing with the Soviet Union's deepening economic and political crisis.

Georgia is following the lead of the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in making a unilateral claim to restoration of a state of independence that was forcibly ended by Soviet military power, rather than pursue the formal, drawn-out secession process theoretically permitted under the Soviet Constitution. Mr. Gamsakhurdia said Georgia would need support from other nations to secure its claim. He pleaded for recognition of its historic state of independence, which is rooted in an ancient culture whose previous peak was as a Caucasian empire presided over by Queen Thamar at the end of the 12th century.

Modern Georgia is an economically shaky land, clearly dependent to some degree on aid from Moscow. It recently became a hotbed of Soviet nationalist clashes, with the Georgian majority represented by the Gamsakhurdia government trying to put down a separate independence claim within its borders by the no less ancient South Ossetian minority of 65,000. Fighting in Breakaway Region More than 60 people have been killed in South Ossetia in factional fighting as Mr. Gamsakhurdia has demanded that Mr. Gorbachev withdraw Soviet troops dispatched to the region, in northern Georgia, after a state of emergency was declared by the Soviet Parliament.

There was no Kremlin reaction to he Tbilisi declaration of independence, although by coinicidence President Gorbachev today offered his latest "anti-crisis" plan for holding the nation together. He emphasized the importance of last month's referendum endorsement by the Soviet nation at large of his vague call for a "renewed" Soviet Union in which he has promised greater sovereignty for the 15 republics.

Source: New York Times

BANKS ACT 94 OF 1990

The purpose of the Banks Act is to provide for the regulation and supervision of the business of public companies taking deposits from the public; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

Office for Banks

For the registration as banks of public companies desiring to conduct the business of a bank and for the other purposes of this Act there shall, as part of the Reserve Bank, be an office in Pretoria called the Office for Banks, and at the head of such office shall be a person to be styled the Registrar of Banks.

Source: SABINET

Insurgents Claiming Victory in Somalia

Rebels in Somalia said on Saturday night that they had won control of the capital, Mogadishu, and had forced President Mohamed Siad Barre to flee his palace. The rebels' assertions, monitored over radio about 600 miles to the southwest in Nairobi, were largely confirmed today by a team of French doctors who were treating the wounded in the Somali capital.

Stevan van Praet, a representative in Kenya of a French humanitarian agency, Doctors Without Borders, said his team told him this morning by radio telephone that Mr. Siad Barre had fled the presidential palace in a tank 15 minutes before it was seized. Mr. van Praet said he had no information about the whereabouts of the President, who has held autocratic power in the eastern African nation for 21 years. Looting of Palace Mr. van Praet said his doctors had reported that civilians and rebels had looted the palace, known as Villa Somalia, after the President's escape.

One unconfirmed report in Nairobi said Mr. Siad Barre had fled to his well-fortified bunker at the Mogadishu airport, which the French doctors said was controlled by loyal troops. Another unconfirmed report suggested that the President had fled south toward the Kenyan border. In the broadcast, the United Somali Congress said: "The Government and the responsibility of the Somali people were taken over by the U.S.C. movement. We are addressing you from Radio Mogadishu, the voice of the Somali people."

The United Somali Congress is one of three clan-based insurgent groups that have been trying to oust Mr. Siad Barre, who during the cold war received weapons from the Soviet Union and then the United States. In the last two years, under pressure from Congress, Washington cut off military aid over human rights abuses by the Somali Government.

The French doctors, who are accompanied by an English ecologist and pilot, Murray Watson, are the only independent contact between Mogadishu and the outside world. Soon after intense fighting and looting started at the end of last month, all foreign embassies were evacuated. Two weeks ago, diplomats from Italy, the former colonial power in Somalia, were the last to leave. In a radio conversation this morning with the British Broadcasting Corporation, Mr. Watson graphically described the scene in the whitewashed, palm-fringed city on the Indian Ocean. "There are not so many bodies," on the street, Mr. Watson said, "because dogs have eaten most of them." "There are hands sticking up through the sand," he said in an apparent description of bodies still strewn on the beach. He said that in the last few days, the doctors had received about 60 severely wounded civilians and were performing "10 to 15 amputations a day." Mr. Watson told the BBC that shells fired from the area of the presidential palace were "going out 5 to 10 kilometers" and landing in civilian areas.

Last week, Mr. Siad Barre appointed a new Prime Minister, Umar Arteh Ghalib, a nationally known figure from the northern-based Isaaq clan, which has also been fighting the Government. The President also offered to step down if the rebels accepted a truce, but the deal was rejected. A stream of refugees has been pouring out of Somalia into both Ethiopia and Kenya, some of them highly placed military and political figures. With considerable rivalry between the clan-based insurgents, it seemed doubtful that the United Somali Congress would be able to restore stability to the country, both Somalis and Western analysts said. Many predicted that there would be persistent factional fighting.

Coveted by the superpowers during the cold war because of its strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and close to the Middle East, Somalia is a largely rural, Muslim country of six million people. The United States had an access agreement with the Siad Barre Government for use of the port at Berbera, but the internal situation had become so unstable that the port was not used during the build up for the Persian Gulf war.

Source: New York Times

Haiti's Choice, and Father Aristide's

Sunday's election in Haiti was a triple triumph: for Haiti's determined voters, for the winning candidate, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and for the international effort to guarantee a free, fair vote. After a bloody fiasco in 1987, and an unconvincing army-run vote in 1988, Haiti has at last chosen a democratic successor to the Duvalier dictatorship. Father Aristide has won a mandate for radical change. But he has also acquired a duty to respect the constitutional procedures that assured his victory.

Outsiders have always found it easy to write off Haiti. The hemisphere's poorest republic, they said, could not afford the luxury of political choice. Besides, Haiti lacks any history of democratic government. And, they dolefully predicted, the armed thugs of the old regime would surely veto all attempts at serious change. Perhaps there was also an element of racism in the wide refusal to acknowledge that black Haiti could become part of Latin America's democratic trend.

Haitians never succumbed to such reasoning. They braved intimidation from the army and the remnants of the Duvaliers' secret police, the Tontons Macoute, to approve a democratic electoral code, and then defend it in the streets against military encroachments. Neither failed elections nor military coups extinguished their faith that they were as entitled to democracy as anyone else.

Americans can be proud of the role played by their Ambassador, Alvin Adams, since his arrival a year ago. By making plain that American economic support depended on progress toward elections, he helped keep the electoral process on track. Last month Father Aristide's radical rhetoric began to draw not only wide support from the poor but also threats from panicked sections of the elite that threatened to derail the election. Ambassador Adams held firm for democratic principle.

Democracy's cause remains insecure. Father Aristide's promises to sweep away social inequality and political violence will be impossible to fulfill at once. The violent men of the old regime will be around to thwart the new government's initiatives long after international election observers have departed.

Father Aristide will need to be tough. But he will also need to be patient, and to preach patience to his followers. His is a truly historic challenge. He can now become either the father of Haitian democracy or just one more of its many betrayers.

Source: New York Times

Ivory Coast's Ruling Party Wins a Huge Majority in Open Election

President Felix Houphouet-Boigny's party won an overwhelming majority in Parliament in multiparty elections that ended 30 years of unchallenged one-party rule, the Government said today. Opposition politicians accused the governing party of intimidation and fraud in the voting on Sunday.

The Interior Ministry said the governing Democratic Party won 163 seats in the 175-member Parliament while the Popular Front, the main opposition party, won 9 of the 10 seats captured by opponents of the Government. The remaining two seats went to governing party members who ran as independents.

Two opposition leaders who are university professors were elected to Parliament: Laurent Gbagbo of the Popular Front and Francis Wodie, head of the Ivoirian Workers' Party and dean of Abidjan University's law faculty.

Mr. Wodie, a former president of the human rights organization Amnesty International, defeated two candidates from the governing party and an ally of Mr. Gbagbo to win the seat from the affluent suburb of Cocody, where President Houphouet-Boigny voted. Mr. Wodie said in an interview, "It is difficult to believe these results are correct, that the opposition is in such a minority." He blamed a low voter turnout, which he estimated at 50 to 60 percent, and suggested that some Ivoirians had not bothered to vote because they believed that the balloting would be rigged.

About 4.4 million people registered to vote in the contest among 490 candidates from 19 parties. Results are not official until the Supreme Court ratifies them later this week. The Democratic Party had been expected to win, but not with such a vast majority. Its victory reinforced Mr. Houphouet-Boigny's re-election last month in the first contested presidential race in this West African nation's 30 years of independence, all under his rule.

The President's sole challenger, Mr. Gbagbo, has charged that the governing party also rigged that election, in which the octogenarian President won 81.67 percent of the vote.

Source: New York Times

FINANCIAL SERVICES BOARD ACT 97 OF 1990

The purpose of the Financial Services Board Act is to provide for the establishment of a board to supervise compliance with laws regulating financial institutions and the provision of financial services; and for matters connected therewith.

Functions of the Financial Services Board

(a) to supervise and enforce compliance with laws regulating financial institutions and the provision of financial services;
(b) to advise the Minister on matters concerning financial institutions and financial services, either of its own accord or at the request of the Minister; and
(c) to promote programmes and initiatives by financial institutions and bodies representing the financial services industry to inform and educate users and potential users of financial products and services.

The board shall be governed by so many members as the Minister may deem necessary and appoint, with due regard to the interests of the users of financial services and the suppliers of financial services, including financial intermediaries, and the public interest.

Levies

The board may impose by notice in the Gazette levies on financial institutions and may, subject to the provisions of this section, at any time in similar manner amend, substitute or withdraw any such notice.

Source: SABINET

Official Says Soviet Blast Affected 120,000

An explosion at a nuclear fuel processing plant in the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan this month may have contaminated 120,000 people, a local environmental official said today. Rishat Adamov, chairman of eastern Kazakhstan's Regional Committee on Environmental Protection, said 60,000 people demonstrated on Thursday in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk to demand that the plant there be closed. ''It's a bomb in the center of the city,'' Mr. Adamov said in a telephone interview from Ust-Kamenogorsk, 2,000 miles east of Moscow, where the explosion on Sept. 12 released toxic beryllium oxide gas into the atmosphere.

Medical experts in Moscow said exposure to beryllium, a metal widely used in the nuclear and aerospace industries, could lead to lung problems resulting in breathing difficulties, coughing and spitting of blood. There might also be eye and skin problems. While they could be fatal in extreme cases, most symptoms should clear up in six months, said the experts, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ''There is no medicine to treat this effectively,'' one doctor added.

President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan called on the Soviet Government to provide compensation for health damage in the region.

Source: New York Times

Preventing Genocide in Liberia

Until the 1980's, Liberia's main divide was between indigenous people and the Americo-Liberians, descended from freed U.S. slaves. Mr. Doe's bloody coup ended the old elite's dominance. Power and patronage flowed instead to the Krahn. That favoritism, along with the regime's brutality and incompetence, sparked opposition from other ethnic groups, like the Gio and the Mano. One rebel leader, Prince Johnson, is from the Gio. His rival, Charles Taylor, is an Americo-Liberian.

The U.S. cannot be proud of its own early association with the Doe dictatorship. The Reagan Administration convinced itself that Mr. Doe could provide a strategic bulwark against Communist advance. It ignored abundant evidence of official misdeeds and popular discontent and made Liberia the largest per capita recipient of U.S. aid in sub-Saharan Africa. Congress finally cut back American support after 1985. When Mr. Doe's enemies began closing in on him earlier this year, the Bush Administration rightly resisted his pleas for help.

Instead, a peacekeeping force was raised from the 16-member Economic Community of West African States. With 5,000 Liberian civilians dead and 400,000 refugees streaming over the borders, neighboring states feared chaos. Yet the force's arrival last month touched off reprisals against foreigners and fears of a wider war.

Those concerns remain valid. President Doe's murder has not ended Liberia's ordeal. The prospect of ethnic genocide compels preventive action. From Sri Lanka to the Balkans, political opportunists have exploited ethnic rivalries in the quest for short-term advantage. Too often, their efforts have drowned their countries in blood. For taking risks to prevent the worst, West Africa's peacekeepers deserve the world's appreciation, and support.

Source: New York Times

Police in South Africa Fire on Soweto Crowd

A total of 32 people died in fighting between black factions since Saturday, reports said. Hundreds have died since the violence in black townships near Johannesburg began less than one month ago.

Residents accused supporters of the conservative Zulu movement Inkatha of starting the nighttime attack with police help. They also said masked white men had taken part in the assault on the Tladi squatter camp in Soweto. The head of the South African Council of Churches, the Rev. Frank Chikane, visited the camp and said he had seen enough to know that ''police are involved in killing us.'' The police fought running battles with residents who hurled rocks and firebombs throughout the morning near the camp in the sprawling township southwest of Johannesburg.

Source: New York Times

Liberian Insurgents Kill President, Diplomats and Broadcasts Report

It is unclear whether the President died from gunshot wounds suffered during his capture or whether he was killed after arriving at rebel headquarters. President Doe was reportedly seen being interrogated by Mr. Johnson shortly before his death.

The State Department in Washington said it had been informed by what it described as various reliable sources that President Doe died after the weekend shootout with rebel forces. Mr. Johnson has declared himself President until an interim government takes over, though he has reportedly not taken possession of the palace in Monrovia that Mr. Doe occupied until Sunday. While Mr. Doe's death has removed a leading figure in the Liberian conflict, the situation remains complicated.

Mr. Johnson's forces control much of downtown Monrovia, while about 6,000 to 10,000 troops loyal to another rebel leader, Charles Taylor, dominate the country outside the capital. Brig. David Nimley, commander of Mr. Doe's military forces, announced Sunday night that he was in charge, indicating that the Doe group may remain a factor.

In addition, 4,000 troops from five West African countries are in Liberia as part of a peacekeeping force dispatched last month by the 16-nation Economic Community of West African States. This intervention, inspired largely by Nigeria, was conceived as an effort to stop hostilities and organize eventual elections. The international force made a naval landing and is now occupiying part of the port area. Late last month, commanders of the West African troops named Amos Sawyer head of an interim Government. Mr. Johnson's faction has welcomed the West African force, while Mr. Taylor's group opposes it and has battled fiercely with the international contingent on the capital's outskirts.

Reports of the death of Mr. Doe seemed to signal the further disintegration of what had remained of his army. Senior officials in the Doe Government were seen today trying to negotiate with the West African peacekeeping force to evacuate Mr. Doe's relatives and close associates. Many of his soldiers were said to be surrendering or stripping off their uniforms and trying to hide. Sporadic bursts of gunfire continued in central Monrovia throughout the day as Mr. Johnson's fighters hunted down the President's men.

Western diplomats and other sources said Mr. Doe was captured after he appeared unexpectedly at the headquarters of the five-nation peacekeeping force, which has been seeking to impose a cease-fire in a war in which more than 5,000 people are believed to have been killed. Tom Woweiyu, a spokesman for the rival rebel group led by Mr. Taylor, said that according to its intelligence reports Mr. Doe intended to leave the country, possibly under the escort of the peacekeeping force. A spokesman for Mr. Johnson's group also said today that the President was seeking refuge at the peacekeeping force headquarters in Monrovia's port area, but neither report could be confirmed. Shortly after Mr. Doe's arrival, Prince Johnson and his supporters arrived and a gunfight erupted. The rebel troops then hunted down the President's soldiers from room to room and slaughtered them. More than 60 people, including dozens of Mr. Doe's bodyguards, were reportedly killed in the battle. The President was reportedly wounded in both legs.

During the hourlong battle, members of the peacekeeing force made repeated appeals to both sides to stop firing, but were unable to stop the fighting. Western and African diplomats here said today that they were dismayed that the incident occurred at the peacekeeing force's heavily guarded headquarters, and some voiced concern that troops there may have acted in collusion with Mr. Johnson's rebels. There were also unconfirmed reports that Mr. Johnson may have lured President Doe into the area by promising to sign a cease-fire agreement with him. Late last month, Mr. Johnson's faction and Mr. Doe's group announced that they had reached a truce, and Mr. Johnson said publicly that Mr. Doe was no longer his main adversary.

According to reports from witnesses at the Johnson forces' base, Mr. Johnson later interrogated Mr. Doe at length about the whereabouts of large amounts of money he was supposed to have embezzled while in power. In an interview with the BBC shortly after Mr. Doe was captured, Mr. Johnson said he was not going to kill the President, but wanted him to stand trial.

The rebellion started last December when some 150 guerrillas, led by both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Taylor, launched sporadic raids on Government outposts in northeast Liberia. But after brutal army reprisals against the population in the area, the rebellion gathered momemtum and fighting eventually engulfed most of the country of about 2.5 million people, which is about the size of Ohio.

Tonight, Mr. Woweiyu, the Taylor spokesman, said his group was willing to hold cease-fire talks with Mr. Johnson, but only if the West African force ended its efforts to set up an interim government.

Source: New York Times

Liberian President Captured by Rebels In a Fierce Gunfight

According to sketchy reports from neighboring Liberia, a skirmish occurred outside the headquarters of the five-nation West African peacekeeping force sent into Liberia in an effort to end the civil war that began in December. More than 60 people, including dozens of Mr. Doe's bodyguards, were reportedly killed in the battle. The President himself was reported to have been shot in both legs before being taken away. By nightfall, there had been no word from a rival rebel faction led by Charles Taylor, which controls much of the country outside the capital. Liberia's civil war began last December when forces of the two rebel leaders invaded from the Ivory Coast, moving into Nimba County, about 300 miles northeast of Monrovia.

The Liberian Government sent troops and provincial policemen to oust the rebels. By most accounts, the soldiers then went on a rampage, indiscriminately killing and maiming hundreds of unarmed civilians - people they apparently believed were sympathetic to the rebels. At least 400,000 Liberians are believed to have fled across the eastern and northern frontiers to escape the bloodshed, most of them settling in the heavily forested hills of the Ivory Coast and Guinea.

In early February, the two rebel leaders split into rival factions, with Mr. Johnson accusing Mr. Taylor of corruption. Mr. Taylor, a former Cabinet member, also had been accused of corruption when he was serving in Mr. Doe's Government; the President charged he embezzled nearly $1 million in Government funds. Mr. Johnson also accused Mr. Taylor of having received arms and money from Libya, an accusation Mr. Taylor has denied.

The war has become increasingly three-sided, with the two rebel factions fighting each other and Mr. Doe trying to hold onto the small fraction of the country - mostly central Monrovia -that his troops still control. The bitter rivalry between Mr. Taylor and Mr. Johnson took an unexpected turn in late August, when Mr. Taylor announced that he had signed a cease-fire agreement with President Doe. Mr. Doe and Mr. Johnson were apparently discussing the agreement today when they began to argue and fighting erupted. It was not known what role the West African peacekeeping force had played in the incident, although it reportedly occurred outside its headquarters in Monrovia's port area. According to a BBC correspondent with the West African peacekeeping force in Monrovia, Mr. Johnson said tonight that he would court-martial Mr. Doe, a former soldier, but that he did not want to kill him.

The incident reportedly began when the President, who had only rarely left his heavily fortified executive mansion since July, appeared unexpectedly at the port headquarters of the peacekeeping force. About 10 minutes later, Mr. Johnson and several of his fighters reportedly arrived and began to quarrel with President Doe's bodyguards. The rebel troops then reportedly hunted down the President's soldiers from room to room and slaughtered them. Eventually, they grabbed the President and carried him off to their base camp outside the city. Members of the peacekeeping force reportedly made repeated appeals to the two sides, but were unable to stop the fighting.

In 1980, President Doe, a 28-year-old master sergeant who dropped out of the 11th grade, came to power after he and other army noncommissioned officers seized power from President William R. Tolbert, who was shot and bayoneted to death. Ten days later, foreign reporters were invited to watch 13 senior Government officials, including most of the former Cabinet, marched nearly naked through the streets of Monrovia, tied to seaside posts and then executed at point-blank range.

President Doe's international reputation never fully recovered from that incident. His image has also suffered from persistent accusations of human rights abuses. The State Department's 1989 human rights report, released shortly after the rebel invasion, said, "Brutality by police and other security officials during the arrest and questioning of individuals is fairly common, and there has been no evidence of Government efforts to halt this practice." Since Mr. Doe came to power, more than 20 senior Government officials and army officers have been executed on charges of plotting coups.

Source: New York Times

Refugees Report Liberian 'Scorched Earth' Drive on Rebels

Refugees fleeing fighting in northeastern Liberia have told of a "scorched earth" policy by the Liberian Army, sent into Nimba Province to put down an insurgency that started there two weeks ago. The refugees told a reporter for Agence France-Presse that the army had entered villages in the northeastern region with mounted machine guns and opened automatic fire.

Those who managed to escape across the river into the neighboring Ivory Coast said they had seen friends and relatives shot by the soldiers. The villages were then burned and terrified inhabitants chased into the bush, the refugees said. Ivory Coast officials have said up to 10,000 Liberian refugees have arrived in the Ivory Coast, but other reports have put the figures much lower.

Fighting began on Dec. 24, when insurgents opposed to the West African country's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, entered Nimba, the site of previous rebellions against General Doe. The rebellion is apparently led by Charles Taylor, a former minister in the Doe Government who fell into disfavor and fled the country after being charged with corruption. A man claiming to be Mr. Taylor phoned the BBC a week ago and said the rebels were seeking to overthrow General Doe. Mr. Taylor said his forces numbered 1,000. The Doe Government has said there are 200 insurgents.

The Government has said the rebel forces destroyed two towns, Kahntle and Butuo, in the initial incursion. General Doe, who as a master sergeant came to power in a violent coup in 1980, warned a rally in the capital, Monrovia, on Saturday that if anyone was caught harboring rebels, "we will treat you as a rebel. We will carry out a massive search," he said. "Furnish us with information if you want to be on the safe side."

General Doe, who accused the Ivory Coast of harboring the insurgents, warned his neighbor that Liberian forces would pursue the rebels back over the border. Gen. Edward Smith, in charge of crushing the uprising, was quoted by Radio Elwa in Liberia as saying that among the more than 200 men, women and children killed by the rebels were 7 people shot while praying in a mosque.

While Monrovia was apparently unaffected by the fighting in the northeast, there was concern that the killing of the great-grandson of a former Liberian President on Thursday might be connected with the events in Nimba. The victim, Robert Phillipa, found beheaded with his wrists cut at his home, was one of the main defendants in the 1985 treason trial that followed a coup attempt against General Doe.

Liberia, founded by freed American slaves in 1847 and long run by their descendants, has been the closest ally of the United States in West Africa. The relationship grew especially warm during the Reagan Administration, when General Doe received nearly $500 million in aid from Washington, making Liberia the largest per-capita recipient of American aid in sub-Saharan Africa.

A United States military communications station and transmitters for Voice of America broadcasts to Africa are situated in Liberia. It is the only country in West Africa where United States military planes can land with just 24 hours' notice. But Congress has become increasingly disenchanted with the Doe Government, particularly its refusal to clean up a corrupt economy or markedly improve its human rights record. Military aid has been steadily decreased to zero over the last several years, and economic aid was cut to $31.5 million last year.

Source: New York Times

3,000 West African Troops Leave For Liberia to Enforce Cease-Fire

Six ships carrying 3,000 West African soldiers sailed from here today to enforce a cease-fire in Liberia, where a 10,000-man rebel army has rejected a proposed truce. The West African Economic Community, which dispatched the soldiers, emphasized that the force was on a peaceful mission to halt the eight-month civil war. An estimated 5,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting. The fleet could reach Monrovia, the capital, as early as Friday morning.

A rebel leader, Charles Taylor, assailed the plan as a maneuver to keep President Samuel K. Doe in power. Mr. Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia is the largest of the three armies fighting for control of this West African nation of 2.5 million. The leader of another rebel group, Prince Johnson, and the forces loyal to President Doe have accepted the proposal for a truce. Mr. Johnson's rebels and Mr. Doe's army are in control of the capital, and Mr. Taylor's force controls most of the rest of Liberia. It was unclear whether the West African peacekeeping force will enter Monrovia when it arrives or wait offshore for more negotiations to bring about a truce. Its commander, Lieut. Gen. Arnold Quainoo of Ghana, has said he does not want to risk entering Liberia until all sides agreed to stop fighting.

Peace talks are to resume on Monday, but Mr. Taylor has not said whether he will send envoys. Troops from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Guinea have been assembling for weeks. Togo had said it would send troops, but did not. Efforts to persuade Mr. Taylor to accept a role by the force collapsed on Wednesday after his representatives and West African leaders conferred for two days in Banjul, Gambia.

The Gambian leader, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, chairman of the West African organization, issued a statement that said Mr. Taylor was responsible for the failure of the talks. It said the West African group agreed at the meeting to meet Mr. Taylor's demands for an initial 10-day truce, but that Mr. Taylor's delegates backed off when they learned that Mr. Doe and Mr. Johnson had agreed. Mr. Taylor said he was concerned that hundreds of the soldiers were provided by Nigeria and Guinea, whose leaders have in the past supported Mr. Doe. Mr. Taylor led his forces into Liberia from Ivory Coast in December, saying that Mr. Doe's Government was corrupt and he would oust it.

Mr. Taylor has refused to allow thousands of Nigerians and Guineans caught behind his lines on Monrovia's eastern outskirts to leave the country. His spokesman, Tom Woewiyu, said Tuesday that the rebels would ''fight to the last man'' against the West African soldiers. "There are enough guns floating around in Liberia," Mr. Woewiyu said. "For a group of people to come to Liberia with even bigger guns is like putting an explosive in a fire."

Mr. Taylor reportedly said this week that outside intervention would leave him free to call on whatever forces he pleased for help. He has denied charges by the United States and by Mr. Johnson, who was formerly his chief commander, that his rebels were trained and armed by Libya and Burkina Faso. West African leaders decided to intervene on Aug. 6. They have argued that the war is no longer an internal conflict because thousands of their citizens are trapped in Liberia and about 400,000 Liberian refugees are burdening neighboring countries.

Source: New York Times

Liberian Rebels Invade Capital's Center

Rebel fighters waded across a swamp and shot their way into the center of the capital today, surprising Government troops who had been defending two bridges leading into the city. The rebels were part of a splinter army led by Prince Johnson, now considered by some foreign diplomats to be the strongest force challenging President Samuel K. Doe in the seven-month civil war.

On the eastern outskirts of Monrovia, the forces of the other main rebel leader, Charles Taylor, have been stalled in their assault on the city. If Mr. Johnson's fighters topple President Doe before the other rebels have a chance to, there could be increased fighting between the rebel forces. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Taylor split after the rebel invasion in December, and their forces have clashed before.

Diplomats said President Doe was a virtual hostage of his bodyguards at the heavily fortified presidential palace. The bodyguards, soldiers of Mr. Doe's own Krahn tribe, are convinced they will be massacred if the rebels take the capital and are apparently trying to use the President as a bargaining chip to obtain safe passage out of Monrovia. The Gio and Mano tribes are on the side of the rebels, turning the civil war into an outright tribal conflict. Journalists with the insurgents already have reported rebel killings of Krahns in retaliation for the killing of civilian rebel supporters by Government troops.

A United States official in Washington said Mr. Johnson's forces advanced on Monrovia's center today through a swamp from Bushrod Island, an island in the northwestern part of the city that they control, and across two bridges that were not being heavily defended by Government forces. Many of Mr. Doe's forces were seen dropping their weapons and fleeing after the surprise attack. The President's soldiers fought back from atop tall buildings. Heavy machine-gun and rifle fire shook downtown streets.

Air Cargo of Liberia, which ran the last air link into Monrovia, operated its last flight on Sunday, filled with fleeing refugees. At a supermarket opposite the main military barracks in Monrovia, the owner, Youssef Fawaz, was asked if he was planning to leave as well. "Now I have no more stock, there is nothing else left for me to do," he said. "Only, I don't know how to leave." His store's shelves were empty except for a few cans of powdered milk, boxes of tea bags and crates filled with shoe polish.

The United States official said Mr. Johnson's forces appeared to be stronger than Mr. Taylor's. Mr. Johnson began feuding with Mr. Taylor after the rebel invasion last year. Mr. Taylor has accused him of killing several of his soldiers. Mr. Johnson's men forced Mr. Taylor to delay a planned assault on Monrovia by attacking his soldiers and forcing them to regroup.

On Sunday, President Doe vowed to remain in the capital until a clear victor emerges in the civil war. Diplomats said that even if he wanted to leave sooner, the soldiers guarding him would not leave without guarantees for their safety. In exchange for allowing Mr. Doe to leave, the Krahn soldiers seek safe passage to their home territory in Grand Gedeh County. Grand Gedeh is Mr. Doe's last remaining stronghold, apart from his few remaining square miles in downtown Monrovia.

The rebels began their offensive in December and effectively control two-thirds of the country of 2.4 million people. They have accused Mr. Doe, who took power in a 1980 coup, of corruption, mismanagement and human rights abuses. Mr. Taylor has promised to maintain close ties with the United States if he comes to power, but he has ruled out immediate elections.

Liberia, founded by freed American slaves 150 years ago, has traditionally had close ties with Washington. Washington refused to send in a peacekeeping force, and on Saturday Mr. Doe ordered the American military attache expelled, accusing him of helping the rebels. The United States denied the accusations.

Source: New York Times

Besieged Liberian Talks of Elections

With rebel forces advancing on the capital, Gen. Samuel K. Doe announced today that he would not seek re-election to the presidency next year. He also appealed to the United States and other nations to help end the five-month conflict here and supervise elections in 1991.

Six United States Navy ships carrying 2,300 marines were on the way here from the Mediterranean to prepare for the possible evacuation of American citizens. Western diplomats said the convoy is expected to reach the Liberian coast next Tuesday. General Doe told reporters at a news conference that the Sixth Fleet set sail "with the approval of the Government of Liberia."

General Doe said that while the 1991 elections would be open to the country's established political parties, they would not likely include the rebel leader, Charles Taylor, who he called a "wanted man in this country."

"Until the Government can give Charles Taylor clemency, I will not talk to him," General Doe said. For their part, guerrilla leaders reiterated today that they would not negotiate with General Doe, and that his decision not to seek reelection would not dissuade them from invading Monrovia, the capital. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation from Washington, Tom Woweiyu, a rebel spokesman, said, "The only offer that Doe can make now to us that will make any sense is to surrender himself to the Patriotic Front and to the people of Liberia to stand for prosecution."

Signs of anxiety, panic and growing chaos are evident throughout the city. Most neighborhoods had little or no water, and electrical outages were frequent. The streets were lined with crowds waiting in vain for transportation. The scarcity of transportation came about because members of the Mandingo tribe, who control much of the private taxi and bus service, have fled the capital. At grocery stores throughout the city, shoppers frantically tried to stock up. At one store, James Gaye, an electrician working in a hospital, said he was trying to buy enough frozen chicken and other items to last for at least a month. Like many others, he had opened his home to relatives who had fled from the fighting in the countryside. "I've got only one bed in my house," said Mr. Gaye, who is single, "and I've got 14 relatives now trying to sleep there." He asked, "How am I going to feed all these people?"

Nearby, Nancy Yekeson was searching through mostly empty shelves of canned foods. She, her husband and four children were packing up and driving to Sierra Leone, a neighbor nation, in hopes of avoiding the expected rebel onslaught. "If you can get out, God knows, you go," she said. Most worrisome, residents said, were reports of mutilated bodies found in densely populated residential areas. At least two bodies were found this morning, one of a girl who appeared to be about 12 years old.

Tensions have also been heightened by newspaper reports of Government soldiers harassing and killing civilians and looting stores. "Man Killed by New Recruit" and "31-Year-Old Man Stabbed by Soldier" read two headlines on the same page today in The Standard, a Monrovian newspaper. Despite the evident fear, some residents said they were beginning to doubt whether the threatened rebel invasion would ever come. It has been nearly three weeks since Mr. Taylor, the rebel leader, said a takeover of the city was imminent. But except for scattered reports from skirmishes near Roberts Field, Monrovia's international airport, the rebel presence has been slight. Reports of fighting near the airport, however, have prompted most airlines to cancel flights. "They've been saying they're coming, but I'm beginning to believe that's a lot of mouth-talk," said Abu Kromah, a Monrovian taxi driver. Yet, Mr. Kromah, like many Monrovians who have the means, was preparing to take his family out of the city.

The warfare started five months ago when about 150 guerrillas invaded a half-dozen hamlets in northeastern Liberia. The Liberian Government sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. Since then, the rebels, their numbers increased several-fold, have pushed their army out of virtually all the northeastern quarter of the country. They have asserted that they control Buchanan, the port city about 88 miles by road from the capital, and that they are advancing on two fronts within 35 miles of Monrovia. The rebel force, which calls itself the National Patriotic Front, is drawn mainly from the Gio and Mono tribes of northeastern Liberia, who say they have been oppressed by members of General Doe's tribe, the Krahn.

General Doe seized power in a violent 1979 coup that ousted the privileged descendants of freed American slaves, who founded this nation. Today, a network of red-clay logging roads linking Monrovia with northwestern Liberia were clogged with overloaded vehicles fleeing the city. Because the rebel forces reportedly control the main arteries to the east and north, the western route is the only way out of the capital. Throughout Monrovia, talk centered on the United States Navy flotilla, which includes a destroyer, an amphibious assault ship, a tank landing ship and other support vessels carrying ammunition and combat supplies.

At the same time, many residents here said they were suspicious of the United States' decision to send the craft, and some wondered whether United States troops might try to prop up General Doe's Government. "Why do they need to send so many soldiers?" was a question heard often today.

The United States has extensive interests here, including a Voice of America radio transmitter and an Omega marine communications equipment station, which helps guide American vessels in the Atlantic Ocean - all of which are located fewer than 20 miles from the southern rebel front. United States Embassy officials here said that about 1,100 American citizens, including several hundred missionaries, remain in the country. About 4,000 expatriates fled last month.

Source: New York Times

U.S. Sends Ships to Pull Americans Out of Liberia

The United States is sending ships to evacuate Americans from Liberia because rebel forces are advancing on Monrovia, the capital, Bush Administration officials said tonight. "The State Department is ordering the departure of non-essential personnel and U.S. Government dependents from the Embassy in Monrovia," said a statement by the agency this evening.

The statement said that rebels have taken Buchanan, the second largest city in the nation, 88 miles from the capital, and that atrocities had been committed in Monrovia in recent days. [The Associated Press reported from Monrovia that some rebels had clashed with Government troops 25 miles from the capital.] The United States is "taking appropriate steps to be able to help American citizens leave Liberia" while the airport is still open, the statement added.

One Administration official said that three Navy amphibious ships had been sent to Liberia. Officials said there are 102 American officials and dependents and about 1,100 private American citizens in Liberia. Even though Roberts Field, the international airport 55 miles from Monrovia, is still open, the United States has sent the ships because it is afraid that all of the Americans will not be able to leave the capital by plane in time to avoid possible fighting there. ---- Peace Talks Rejected By KENNETH B. NOBLE MONROVIA, Liberia, May 31 - In a radio interview heard today throughout this West African nation, the leader of rebel forces rejected calls for a negotiated settlement of the conflict.

Charles Taylor, the rebel leader, said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Company that he would not be satisfied until Gen. Samuel K. Doe, the country's president, resigned or was removed from office. "Doe is in no position to talk peace," said Mr. Taylor, who spoke to the BBC by telephone, apparently from Buchanan, the country's second largest city.

Mr. Doe has also repeatedly rejected the idea of negotiations, and talking to diplomats here this morning, he reiterated that he had no intention of resigning. According to a diplomat who attended the meeting, the President said that he would be the "last person to flee" in the face of a rebel advance. However, this capital is increasingly taking on a siege atmosphere, as foreign agencies suspend operations and airline links are cut.

Early today, Air Afrique and Ghana Airways, the two main commercial links between Liberia and the rest of West Africa, announced that they would no longer fly into the country. Swissair also announced that it was canceling tomorrow's flight from Europe, although it might be resumed next week if security conditions improve. Other airlines, including Sabena and British Airways, are continuing their service for the time being.

The United Nations announced that it was ending its emergency food program here for refugees of the civil war, and that its remaining foreign workers were preparing to leave. It took the action after an attack by Government soldiers on the United Nations compound here in which a security guard was killed, and about 40 refugees abducted. The Standard, a Monrovia newspaper, reported today that 15 unidentified bodies - men, women and children -were found near the place where the refugees were said to have been taken by the soldiers. All those abducted were members of the Gio and Mano tribes, from which rebels are said to draw much of their support.

Earlier this week, the Japanese Embassy, one of Liberia's largest foreign aid donors, also announced that it was closing and urged its citizens to leave. Despite Mr. Doe's defiant attitude, an unusually large number of officials in his government are reported to be out of the country on official business and the capital abounds with rumors of more fleeing across the borders. Nearly half of the stores along U.N. Drive, Monrovia's leading commercial strip, are shut, many of them boarded up. The rows of wood stalls in the city's main market are nearly deserted and many Government offices were virtually empty by early afternoon.

By contrast, several downtown hotels, which in recent weeks have been mostly vacant because of the absence of business travelers, are suddenly now filling up with Liberians, many of them Government officials. Some Government officials are said to believe they are safer in the hotels than in their homes.

Mr. Taylor told the BBC that he was calling from Buchanan. Asked when he intended to capture Monrovia, Mr. Taylor replied; "If I can get to Monrovia over the next few hours, I'll be there." Sketchy accounts from around the town of Kakata, about 45 miles north of Monrovia, say that rebel troops have surrounded the army garrison there and ambushed supply convoys trying to reach them. It is impossible, however, to determine how close the rebels are to the capital because reporters who have tried to reach the area had been turned back by government troops who say it is too dangerous to proceed further.

Source: New York Times

Liberian Soldiers Reportedly Attack U.N. Center

Liberian Government soldiers were reported today to have entered a United Nations compound here and abducted about 40 refugees who had taken shelter there in the face of a continuing advance by rebels toward this nervous capital.

Witnesses said that eight soldiers, some of them wearing masks, entered the compound of the United Nations Development Program early this morning and shot to death a civilian security guard. They then rounded up the refugees, stripped them of their clothes and took them away to a deserted site on the outskirts of the city. According to several refugees who managed to escape from the abductors, the others were later shot and killed by the soldiers. This afternoon, four unidentified bodies were found near the place where the incident was said to have occurred. In all, about 400 refugees had been sleeping at the United Nations compound, most of them people who came from Nimba County in the north where the rebels are said to have drawn the bulk of their support among members of the region's Gio and Mano tribes.

The encampment of refugees grew in the last two weeks. Last Friday, about 200 of the Gio and Mano tribespeople came to the United States Embassy seeking safety and shelter. They were told by officials that there was liitle that could be done for them and they were directed to the United Nations and the International Red Cross. Speaking of the attackers today, Michael Heyn, the United Nations representative in Monrovia, described the group that stormed the compound: "From the reports we have, they were army soldiers, dressed in army uniforms, driving army trucks," he said. "The guards tried to prevent them from coming in, they shot one and bayoneted another, and they began shooting indiscriminately. We were told they grabbed people with children in their arms and threw them on the trucks." More than 300 people remained at the compound after the assault.

Mr. Heyn added that he was "completely astounded and unbelieving" that such an incident could happen and said that it was a serious infringement of international law. Because of the incident, the United Nations Secretary General announced in New York today that it had ordered the immediate evacuation of all personnel from Liberia. The move is expected to complicate relief efforts because the United Nations remains one of the main agencies providing food, and organizing medical help for the tens of thousands of displaced people who have fled northeastern Liberia since the fighting began five months ago.

Late this afternoon, President Samuel K. Doe went to the compound to talk to diplomats. As he entered the gates, he was confronted by an angry crowd. "I want you to know that those people who would do this kind of thing, they are doing it on their own," the President said, "and I'm going to deal with them drastically."

The brief speech was met with scattered hissing, and some of the young men in the crowd taunted the soldiers who were with the President. ''Don't believe him! Don't believe him!'' one of the refugees shouted.

The warfare started when about 250 guerrillas invaded half a dozen hamlets in the northeast region. The Liberian Government sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. Since then the rebels, led by Charles Taylor, a former Cabinet member under Mr. Doe, have increased their force by several thousand and have pushed the army virtually out of of Nimba County, Liberia's primary agricultural, mining and logging region. The rebels now sey they have beseiged Buchanan, the port east of Monrovia.

Source: New York Times

Liberia's Leader Finds Himself With Few Allies

The small circle of confidants with whom President Samuel K. Doe has surrounded himself was notably smaller today with many of the palace regulars having left this capital in the face of an approaching insurgency. "A lot of them have just disappeared. They're fleeing a sinking ship," said a prominent politician here who, citing prudence, asked that his name not be used. He noted that the absence of these people became embarrassingly apparent last week when a rally in support of Mr. Doe was held on the steps of the presidential mansion. Members of the Liberian leader's family were there, but virtually all the members of his once closely knit political coterie were absent. With rebel forces advancing in recent days to a point within 35 miles of the capital, Mr. Doe is increasingly an isolated and besieged figure.

Among those who have not been seen here and are now believed to have fled the country is one of the President's closest friends and collaborators, J. Emmanuel Bowier, the Minister of Information. Other high-profile Government figures who have dropped out of sight are Emmanuel Shaw, the Minister of Finance, and Elijah Taylor, the Minister of Planning. "It's nearly impossible these days to get to someone who's really in charge," said an African diplomat from a neighboring country. "The whole Government seems to be run by acting ministers."

The leadership void is perhaps most noticeable in the Information Ministry, which seems rudderless since Mr. Bowier left for Washington a month ago as part of a delegation that sought to explain the fighting to American officials. Back in Monrovia, no news briefings were scheduled for weeks, and when official reports about the fighting were finally issued, they were widely regarded as unreliable. "We look to foreign sources to tell us what's happening in the war because the Government is always so slow, and in that climate a lot of rumors fly," said Winston Tubman, a lawyer and son of the late Liberian President, William V. S. Tubman.

A Western diplomat who has seen the President in recent days said "he is flying by the seat of his pants. He's getting information from a very narrow range of sources," the envoy added.

Initially, President Doe publicly dismissed the rebels as little more than an annoyance, a small band of lightly armed and poorly trained malcontents. This view was reinforced by some of the military advisers who repeatedly insisted that the rebels were on the verge of defeat. "He's been very badly informed about the war," said a politician who remains close to the President. He added that the problems are compounded because Mr. Doe has a low tolerance for criticism. The President, who was an army master sergeant when he led 17 noncommissioned officers in a coup 10 years ago in which President William R. Tolbert Jr. and others were bayoneted and shot to death on a beach below the executive mansion.

On seizing power, Sergeant Doe, an 11th-grade dropout who had been trained two years earlier by a United States Special forces unit, became the 20th Liberian head of state and the first one who was not a direct descendent of the freed American slaves who founded this country in 1847. During the early years of his presidency, Mr. Doe was helped by a group of young, educated civilian technocrats who included Charles Taylor, the man leading the rebels now, a force that calls itself the National Patriotic Front. Last June, after several years of night courses and private tutoring, Mr. Doe graduated from the University of Liberia, where he received a degree in political science. He wrote his senior thesis on relations between Liberia and the United States.

In a recent interview at a guest house near the executive mansion, Mr. Doe made clear his disdain for Mr. Taylor, referring to the man who had once served in his Cabinet as a fugitive from justice. In that conversation the President portrayed himself as a Liberian patriot. "I wanted you to know that there is nothing I love more than my country, and I want to do anything to bring peace," he said. He has also told associates, however, that the one thing he will not do is resign under pressure. "He was thrust into leadership at a relatively young age, with absolutely no preparation, so the pressures have been intense," a Western diplomat said. "Still, a lot of people don't understand him."

This diplomat reflected the views of several others when he described Mr. Doe as having a ruthless streak when dealing with his enemies. Mr. Doe is particularly bitter, according to several Liberians, about the growing disaffection of American officials with his Government. "Doe really believes that the United States is partially to blame for the Taylor invasion," a Liberian politician said. "He believes the Americans have given aid to the rebels."

Others who have seen President Doe in recent days say he has become more elusive and enigmatic than ever. He is rarely seen in public, and for security reasons, is said to sleep in a different house every night. He is reported to have sent his wife, Nancy, and six children to Britain to stay until the crisis is resolved. "He's determined to stick this out, and he thinks he can win," a Liberian said. "Hardly anyone else here is that confident."

Source: New York Times