Won’t Seek ’91 Reelection, Liberia President Doe Says

President Samuel K. Doe, under siege from anti-government rebels, said Friday that he will not run for reelection in 1991 and appealed to the United States to help end Liberia’s six-month rebellion.

“I wish to announce here today my firm decision not to stand for the 1991 general elections,” he told a news conference in Monrovia, the capital.

Doe, who on Thursday refused to resign and vowed to be the last person to leave the city, said Friday that initiatives are under way with former President Jimmy Carter and the United Nations to restore peace in Liberia and help organize elections.

But he virtually ruled out any hope that rebel leader Charles McArthur Taylor, could be a candidate for the elections, saying he faces criminal charges in Liberia.

The United States has sent a task force of Marines from the Mediterranean to Liberia to protect Americans fleeing the West African country, which was founded in 1847 by freed American slaves.

There are about 1,100 private U.S. citizens in Liberia and another 102 government personnel and dependents, the State Department said.

Doe said that the October, 1991, elections would be open to the country’s established political parties but that he could not sanction the participation of anyone like Taylor, who is sought in Liberia on criminal charges.

The government charges that Taylor, a 42-year-old, U.S.-educated businessman, embezzled nearly $1 million from the government while he was head of Liberia’s central purchasing agency in the 1980s.

“I am a leader, not a destroyer,” said Doe, 40, who seized power in a 1980 coup.

The State Department on Thursday urged all Americans to leave Liberia, and four Navy ships with more than 2,000 Marines were sent to waters off the coast to evacuate them if necessary. The Pentagon had initially said six ships were sent but revised the figure Friday, adding the vessels would “arrive shortly.”

Doe approved of the decision to send the task force. “We are friends of the United States and all your fears must be allayed,” he said Friday. “That government will do nothing to harm the people of this country.”

Doe’s forces have been steadily retreating before the onslaughts of Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia, which now controls well over half the country.

The six-month rebel incursion has in many respects become a tribal conflict, with Doe’s army, dominated by the Krahn tribe, battling Gios and Manos, who are the basis of Taylor’s support.

Meanwhile, a British warship and a support tanker are ready to help rescue foreign nationals from Liberia, the Defense Ministry said in London.

A British spokesman said: “The frigate Andromeda and the fleet auxiliary tanker Tidespring are in the region and would be available to support any United States evacuation if required.”

British officials said they believe Doe’s wife and children arrived in Britain about two weeks ago.