Liberian rebels reject Blah, say they should lead interim gov't

MONROVIA, Aug 12 (AFP) - Liberian rebels on Tuesday rejected newly inaugurated President Moses Blah and said they wanted to lead the interim government in the wake of Charles Taylor's departure.

"We will never accept to serve under Moses Blah," said Sekou Fofana, the number two of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), adding: "We want to lead the interim government."

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President John Kufuor of Ghana, who also heads the west African bloc ECOWAS brokering Liberia's peace process, said Monday as Blah took over from Taylor that the new president would head an interim administration until October, when he would hand over to a national transitional government.

Claiming that the government "has been dissolved," Fofana said: "Our leadership has political leaders and skilled men. Definitely we are part of this interim government."

Fofana also said child fighters scattered across Liberia would not give up their weapons unless LURD headed the caretaker government, since they view the rebels as the only "neutral" force.

"If the children don't know any neutral presence, they will not disarm; they are all armed today. They trust us, and if we head the government, they will disarm."

Fofana also confirmed that LURD was in talks with the west African peacekeeping force ECOMIL about reopening Monrovia's strategic port area, vital to resolving the humanitarian crisis in the war-battered city.

"We are in negotiations with the ECOMIL commander," he said. "It went very well; there is a request that we leave the port, they say we should go beyond Po River" outside Monrovia.

But Fofana said his forces, which together with a smaller rebel group currently control four-fifths of the country, would not pull back from the harbour until the ECOMIL had deployed in considerable strength in the area.

"We occupied the port for good reasons, for Taylor to leave," he said. "But Taylor has left some of his bandits here. We don't trust them," he said, adding that they would remain in place "until there is full security."

Monrovia, which has been besieged by the LURD for more than two months, needs its harbour more desperately than ever to resolve crippling shortages of food, medicines and other humanitarian supplies.

Some 250,000 people are displaced within the capital, and those in the government-held southern zone have much less access to food than their counterparts in the rebel-occupied north.

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