Taylor Declares Formation of a New Government in Liberia

Liberian rebel leader Charles Taylor announced the formation of a new government as his forces and those of a rival rebel group battled their way to the last stronghold of President Samuel K. Doe in central Monrovia, the capital.

Taylor said in a radio broadcast Friday night that Doe’s administration had been dissolved and that he had formed a new government, the National Patriotic Reconstruction Assembly.

He promised free, multi-party elections within six months in the West African nation and called on the remnants of Doe’s army to surrender.

While the forces of Taylor’s National Patriotic Front remained blocked by government troops six miles east of the capital, the smaller force of a rival rebel leader, Prince Johnson, advanced into the city Saturday.

Johnson’s disciplined rebel forces, neatly dressed in camouflage uniforms, carefully picked off snipers’ nests as they moved up the steep hill toward the Ducor Palace Hotel, which has a view of the city center. Rifle and machine-gun fire reverberated across the hill as civilians hid in their houses.

Doe has pledged to make his final stand inside his heavily fortified presidential mansion. The rebels, who began their offensive in December, accuse the government of corruption and human rights abuses and are demanding Doe’s resignation.

Meanwhile, five European ambassadors, warning that the country is slipping into “anarchy and national suicide,” called for an urgent U.N. Security Council meeting and suggested that U.S. troops intervene.

The five ambassadors, representing European Community nations, issued their warning Friday. “There is no longer any effective government in control of this country,” Italian Ambassador Gianguido Lanzoni told his government in a cable.

He also suggested that the European countries should look favorably on any American move to intervene “in view of the special relationship” between Liberia and the United States. There are four U.S. warships off the coast of Liberia, a nation founded by the descendants of freed American slaves.

But the United States has refused to intervene, saying the war is an internal Liberian affair.