Talks Collapse as Rivals Battle in Liberia

MONROVIA, Liberia — Rival factions battled Wednesday in the streets of Monrovia, the Liberian capital, pounding one another with machine-gun fire and grenades as peace talks outside the warring country collapsed.

The talks in nearby Ghana were called off after most West African leaders failed to show. Even before the cancellation, there had been doubts the summit would succeed because Liberian warlords Charles Taylor and Alhaji Kromah refused to attend.

Ghanaian President Jerry J. Rawlings, closing the aborted summit, warned warring faction leaders that West African nations are on the verge of pulling their peacekeeping forces out of Liberia, given faction leaders’ flouting of a peace accord.

“I want us to send the final piece of advice to the leaders of Liberia, both civil and military, that their country is in mortal danger of being completely abandoned by the international community,” Rawlings said.

After relative calm in Monrovia on Tuesday, fighting erupted early Wednesday and quickly spread, as bullets whizzed down deserted streets just blocks from the U.S. Embassy.

In one brutal scene, fighters from one faction grabbed an unarmed man from a rival group, beat him, stripped him naked and ordered him to run--then shot him in the back and killed him.

One of five aid workers who recently returned to Monrovia warned Wednesday that a cholera epidemic was imminent unless civilians obtain fresh drinking water soon.

“We are very concerned. There are water problems all over the city,” said Eric Thomas of Doctors Without Borders, as relief agencies appealed to the factions to let them work in peace.

“We have had problems with fighters following their wounded into hospital and emergency wards,” Thomas said by telephone.