Liberians Massacre 600 : Blood Bath at Camp for Refugees

In an outburst of tribal killing, government troops today broke into a refugee camp in Monrovia and massacred about 600 people, many of them women and children, witnesses said.

The government denied responsibility.

One witness who visited the Lutheran Church compound in the Sinkor district of the beleaguered capital said he saw women with their heads smashed open or blown to pieces by bullets, babies still tied to their backs.

Bodies of other people were hanging from the window frames of the church building, apparently killed while trying to escape, he said.

“I saw dead bodies all around,” the source said. “This is genocide.” He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Refugees at a Methodist church across the street fled when they heard the gunfire.

Thousands of refugees fleeing the civil war between rebel forces and the crumbling government of President Samuel K. Doe are crowded into refugee camps in the area. Their numbers have swelled recently as rebel troops have stormed into Monrovia.

The witnesses said soldiers broke into the church compound at about 2 a.m. when the refugees were asleep. There was no telephone in the compound, so the victims had no way of calling for help.

Most refugees are members of the Gio and Mano tribes, which form the main support for the rebels. Most of Doe’s troops are from his Krahn tribe and the Mandingo tribe.

Refugees sought protection at the church at the end of May after government soldiers attacked them at U.N. headquarters in Monrovia. The soldiers killed an unarmed security guard and abducted about 30 men. Many of their bodies were later discovered on the outskirts of the capital.

U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar withdrew all U.N. staff from Liberia in protest, halting an emergency program to aid war refugees. The U.N. chief said in New York that he reacted “with horror and dismay” to today’s massacre.

The White House condemned the massacre as a “senseless act of terror.” But it said the United States was not about to send in any troops. “At this point we don’t believe that would be a prudent course of action,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Steven Hart told reporters.

As street battles raged in downtown Monrovia, rebel leader Prince Johnson seemed more preoccupied with his power struggle with a rival leader than with victory over Doe.

Johnson told two Western photographers Sunday that the rival rebel leader, Charles Taylor, is “a criminal and a rogue.”

“He contacted Libya to bring communism here, and Moammar Kadafi gave him $8 million to stage the Liberian revolution,” Johnson alleged as he met the photographers in a small cafe in a Monrovia suburb.

Taylor has consistently denied reports he received aid from Kadafi and claims to be a die-hard capitalist.