World Notes

For a moment, the stalemated civil war that has bled West Africa's most desperate country for 14 months seemed to be near a conclusion at last. No sooner had the peace talks in nearby Togo adjourned, however, than Liberia's chief rivals for power began disputing the settlement's terms. Charles Taylor, the guerrilla leader whose army controls the countryside, objected to a provision disqualifying him, as well as opposing commanders, from heading a transitional regime in Monrovia. "I expect to head the interim government," he announced. Prince Yeduo Johnson, whose force killed President Samuel Doe in September, denounced the statement: "Charles Taylor is not going to tell the Liberian people what he wants to be."