New Liberia leader wants amnesty, not trials

ACCRA - Liberia's leader-to-be said on Thursday he would not pursue anyone for civil war atrocities but instead wanted a general amnesty to exorcise the ghosts of nearly 14 years of bloodshed.

Hours after being picked by warring factions under a peace deal, Gyude Bryant told Reuters there was a role for everyone in the new Liberia except for exiled former President Charles Taylor, who began Liberia's years of war in 1989.

Bryant, a low-profile Monrovia businessman, is set the task of reuniting his faction-riven West African country and preparing for elections by 2005.

Neighbouring Sierra Leone has set up a UN-backed war crimes tribunal to try the ringleaders of its civil war -- and has indicted Taylor for his own role there -- but Bryant ruled out any such tribunal for Liberia.

"It will do more damage than good," Bryant said. "We need to grant a general amnesty and move our country forward".

More than 200,000 people died during Liberia's civil war in the 1990s and many hoped former warlord Taylor's election in 1997 might end the misery. But his foes took up arms again soon after and the killing continued.

Last week, Taylor capitulated under massive pressure from rebel groups and the international community, handing over power to his deputy Moses Blah and paving the way for the new interim government to start work in October.

Bryant said there could be a role for Blah in the new Liberia, but not for Taylor.

"There is a role for all Liberians. Absolutely everybody except Charles Taylor -- he is the only one who is excluded," Bryant said.

"We cannot go back to Liberia practising the policies of exclusion that have led to inequity. We need to correct these wrongs."

Taylor is now living in a set of elegant villas in Nigeria's southeastern town of Calabar after accepting an asylum offer.

Since Taylor's departure from Liberia, the crippled country's warring factions have moved with uncharacteristic speed and cooperation to agree to a peace deal and then to pick Bryant to head the transition.

Bryant, who will be barred from contesting the 2005 election, said he was chosen because of his neutrality.

"I don't see myself as being a contentious person, or a threat to the many persons who have personal ambitions," he said.

- REUTERS