UN force, Liberians clash amid vote count
Protesters allege fraud in election
MONROVIA, Liberia -- Supporters of presidential candidate George Weah, a former soccer star, clashed with UN peacekeepers yesterday as his party gathered evidence of alleged fraud in Liberia's first postwar election.
Peacekeepers fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse hundreds of people trying to break through a UN barrier near the US Embassy, according to a Jordanian officer who commanded the unit.
Two UN troops were injured, said the officer, who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Witnesses said three Liberians were also injured.
Weah had implored about 1,500 supporters at his party headquarters to reject violence, saying his hopes for victory in the run-off against former finance minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf were not lost. ''I can see you cry. But what I want to say, there's no reason to cry," Weah said. ''Do not, in the name of peace, go in the streets and riot."
After his speech, hundreds of his supporters marched toward Monrovia's center, passing the National Elections Commission, under guard by peacekeepers. Some of Weah's supporters waved tree branches symbolizing peace. Most did not join the skirmishes near the US Embassy.
The 15,000-member UN peacekeeping force said it would ''deal firmly and decisively with any attempts, by any persons, who would seek to use violence to derail the elections process or to undermine peace or public order."
Johnson-Sirleaf had 59 percent of the vote, compared with 41 percent for Weah, with more than 97 percent of the ballots counted.
Johnson-Sirleaf, who would become Africa's first democratically elected female president if the results are certified, declared victory. Weah has refused to concede.
She said she was unconcerned about protests by Weah's supporters and ready for the challenge of governing a nation struggling to recover from a 1989-2003 civil war that killed as many as 200,000 people. ''The young people have a right to express themselves. They're doing so peacefully," Johnson-Sirleaf said, adding she was eager to ''start the process of renewal and rebuilding."
On Thursday, Johnson-Sirleaf reached out to Weah, saying she would offer him a post in her government, perhaps in the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
In elections in 1997, Johnson-Sirleaf ran second to former warlord Charles Taylor, who many said was voted into the presidency by a fearful electorate. Taylor was forced from power two years ago and lives in exile in Nigeria.
Yesterday, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing UN peacekeepers to arrest Taylor if he returns to Liberia and hand him over to the war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone for prosecution.
International observers have said they saw no widespread irregularities in the race between Johnson-Sirleaf and Weah, but Steve Quoah, a top adviser to Weah, said his Congress for Democratic Change party filed papers with the electoral commission to stop the count. Quoah said the violations included ''intimidation, harassment, and prohibiting our poll workers from going into the polling stations." 