The government is ready to evacuate its diplomats from Liberia amid reports that rebels had entered the West African nation's capital to fight government troops, an official said yesterday.
"Ambassador Chen Yung-cho and other embassy staff have taken shelter in a hotel next to the US Embassy in Monrovia. They will depart on the first available flight," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Shih Jui-chi (
Liberian President Charles Taylor vowed on Saturday to hold his besieged capital against rebels pressing hard from the outskirts. Machine-gun fire and heavy explosions on the outskirts sent desperate tens of thousands seeking refuge at the US Embassy.
"This city is not for the taking," Taylor, defiant, said in an interview as he calmly directed Monrovia's defense.
Artillery and machine-gun fire erupted in western suburbs at dawn, prompting the biggest refugee exodus in years in the capital of the war-plagued west African nation. Fearing fighting would move into the city center, countless residents of the city of 1 million thronged the closed gates of the embassy.
Bearing foam mattresses, infants and other hastily gathered precious goods, the crowds huddled shoulder-to-shoulder in the rain on a muddy, rocky hill outside the embassy compound, asking for help from the US -- from where freed slaves sailed in the 19th century to found their war-ruined country.
Liberia's main northern-based rebel movement has driven south to press in upon the capital this week, their strongest move yet to depose Taylor -- a former warlord indicted Wednesday on war crimes by an international tribunal in Sierra Leone for his involvement in a 10-year war there.
In a rare interview, Taylor vowed Saturday he would prevail over the insurgents.
"We think that we're going to have it very difficult," Taylor said. But "I think they will be beaten back," he added, seemingly unruffled by his dwindling territory.
Late Friday, the US Department of State ordered the evacuation of all non-emergency personnel from its Monrovia embassy.
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