U.S. Fears Chaos, Urges U.N. Action on Liberia : Civil war: Policy is reversed amid concern that thousands of refugees will starve or be killed.

The Bush Administration reversed policy Tuesday and asked the United Nations to intervene to stop Liberia’s slide into chaos, and officials warned of the prospect of widespread slaughter in the capital and possible starvation among thousands of refugees.

Two days after government troops reportedly massacred several hundred people seeking shelter in a church, U.S. officials said that about 33,000 refugees have taken asylum at U.S. installations across Liberia, including two major U.S. communications facilities.

“We have not been able to supply food to those seeking refuge at our facilities,” one State Department official said, noting that food supplies for the 500,000 residents of the capital, Monrovia, were severely depleted because fighting had cut off deliveries for weeks.

Aid is “urgent,” said another U.S. official. “These people are going to starve.”

Fighting in Monrovia remained heavy Tuesday, according to a joint pool report filed by Western journalists in Liberia. Rebel forces initially won control of several sections of the city, only to be partly forced back by a government counterattack, the report said.

“We will continue to fight until the last soldiers of the Liberian army die,” President Samuel K. Doe said in a telephone interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. The vow was the first public statement in more than a month from the 38-year-old former sergeant, who has been staging a last defense from his heavily fortified seaside mansion.

When fighting in Liberia began in December, the Administration took a hands-off stance, reasoning that none of the warring factions merited American support. In recent days, however, the United States has been drawn more closely into efforts to end the fighting.

U.S. involvement in Liberia involves both practical and symbolic considerations. On the practical side are two hard-to-replace American communications stations in the small West African nation, one operated by the Voice of America, the other used to transmit CIA and State Department communications throughout Africa.

On the symbolic side, said Pauline Baker, an African policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, Liberia has become “a test of the legacy of the U.S. presence in Africa.” Liberia was founded in 1847 by freed slaves resettled from the United States. The dollar is the local currency, the capital is named after a U.S. president and the local militia wears uniforms modeled after those of New York City police.

During the 1980s, the United States poured more than $500 million in aid into Liberia. Much of that money disappeared because of corruption, and much of what did go into improving the nation’s economy has now been destroyed by war.

About 400 Americans remain in Liberia, according to U.S. officials. In addition, several thousand Liberian citizens carry U.S. passports. Many are “Americo-Liberian” descendants of the freed slaves, who dominated the nation’s politics until Doe took over in a coup a decade ago.

As the fighting continued Tuesday, forces loyal to one of the country’s two rebel armies won control of Mamba Point, the city neighborhood where the U.S. Embassy and several other foreign missions are located, American officials said in Washington.

But late in the day, about 500 soldiers loyal to Doe, advancing under the protection of their last remaining tank, staged a counterattack, retaking control of government buildings that rebels had seized earlier, according to the joint pool report. Heavy fighting was reported near the embassies, but no U.S. personnel were reported injured, Assistant Secretary of State Herman Cohen told reporters.

Cohen said the Administration is “actively consulting with other members of the (U.N.) Security Council with the objective of having a Security Council meeting on Liberia, which we hope will involve the United Nations in trying to arrange a cease-fire.” The Security Council could meet as early as today to consider options ranging from a cease-fire call to creation of a U.N. peacekeeping force to separate the three rival armies.

As recently as Monday, Administration officials had publicly rejected the idea of U.N. involvement in Liberia, saying that the move would be counterproductive. U.S. analysts had hoped that the warring factions would be able to reach a peace settlement or that the arrival of rebel forces in Monrovia earlier this month would rapidly bring a close to fighting.

But officials now concede that their analysis was wrong. “Something’s got to be done at this point,” one White House official said, noting that divisions between two rebel forces with different ethnic bases have turned the fighting into a three-cornered war of increasing ferocity likely to continue even if Doe can be dislodged.

“Forces on both sides, government and the rebel side, are continuing to commit atrocities,” Cohen said. The massacre at the Lutheran church late Sunday was only the latest in a series of attacks on civilians as the fighting has become an outlet for widespread bloodletting between rival ethnic groups.

One of the rebel armies is headed by Charles Taylor, an Americo-Liberian educated in the United States but accused by his opponents of links to Libya. The other is led by Prince Johnson, whose support comes mostly from Liberia’s Gio and Mano tribes. Both men once served in Doe’s government. Doe, for his part, draws most of his support from fellow members of the Krahn tribe.

Besides the atrocities, Cohen said, Liberians are starving. “It’s very important that the fighting stop so that the international community can engage in a massive humanitarian rescue effort,” he said.

Rebel forces have made “a special effort” to supply food to refugees seeking shelter at U.S. facilities, Cohen said. But American officials are increasingly concerned that food, water and sanitation facilities are inadequate for the refugees, who began pouring into three U.S.-held areas of the country about 10 days ago.