Liberian Rebel Says He’ll Hold Election Oct. 10

Rebel leader Charles Taylor said Monday he will organize a general election in Liberia for Oct. 10, but a senior peacekeeping official scoffed at the proposal.

Speaking in a radio interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., Taylor said the election would be open to opposition groups, including a breakaway rebel faction under Prince Johnson.

“By Oct. 10 we hope to have all assembly members elected,” Taylor said, repeating his claim to be president of the West African country.

“We are sending 10 members from our delegation to meet with the other (Johnson’s) faction to begin to discuss bringing this country back to normal.”

But in neighboring Sierra Leone, a senior official with the West African peacekeeping force said: “It’s not a serious proposition. What does Taylor control? How many children attend school on his side, how many hospitals are open?”

He said the peacekeeping force will press on with its mission to install an interim government of prominent Liberians, formed a month ago in the Gambian capital of Banjul and backed by countries involved in the peacekeeping effort.

Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia has won control of most of the country since it started the civil war in December. But it has been unable to take the central part of the capital, Monrovia, held by the remains of the late President Samuel K. Doe’s army and Johnson’s relatively small splinter group. Doe was killed by Johnson’s troops two weeks ago.