As Rebels Draw Near, Liberia’s Doe Held Captive by Own Guards

President Samuel K. Doe is a virtual prisoner in his oceanfront fortress, with rebels besieging the capital and his 500-member presidential guard refusing to let him flee without them, military sources said Sunday.

Other government soldiers are pushing the president to flee to avoid a blood bath, the sources said, sparking bitter infighting inside the executive mansion.

The contingent guarding Doe is made up of soldiers from his Krahn tribe, who fear massacre at the hands of the rebels. The insurgents are mostly from the rival Gio and Mano ethnic groups.

The rebels, meanwhile, had advanced to within a mile of Doe’s mansion and were locked in street combat with Doe’s regular troops, the sources said.

Doe, in a telex to the British Broadcasting Corp. on Sunday afternoon, said he would remain until “a clear victor emerges.”

The president remains “convinced he is invincible,” a diplomatic source said.

As disaster nears, the 38-year-old former army master sergeant who seized power 10 years ago is reverting increasingly to the tribal belief that magic will save him, the source added.

Heavy fighting continued close to the heart of Monrovia. Rebel troops have overrun all of the Bushrod Island district containing the port, fuel and storage depots and repair shops. They were trying to capture the two key bridges leading directly into the city center.

Sources inside the mansion said Doe’s Krahn bodyguards had gathered Saturday with Doe and told him they would refuse to allow him to leave unless they are granted safe passage to their home territory in Grand Gedeh County, Doe’s last stronghold.

But Charles Taylor’s rebel National Patriotic Front of Liberia is expected to fiercely resist any effort by Doe to evacuate his forces to his home region.

The rebels have accused Doe of corruption, mismanagement and human rights abuses.