Bodies placed at U.S. Embassy

MONROVIA, Liberia - Angry crowds laid the bloody, maimed bodies of children in front of Liberia's heavily guarded U.S. Embassy on Thursday, shouting blame at U.S. Marines and America for failing to protect Monrovia's people from fighting overrunning the capital.

President Bush joined international leaders calling for Liberia's president, indicted war crimes suspect Charles Taylor, to cede power as promised in a shattered June 17 cease-fire "so that his country can be spared further bloodshed."

Bush gave no hint he intended to offer U.S. military assistance, as some outsiders have urged for Liberia, a nation founded by freed 19th century American slaves that sees itself as having special ties to the United States.

A fresh rocket attack Thursday in the center of the refugee-crowded capital killed a street-corner moneychanger and struck new panic in the city. Three days of rocket and mortar fire have killed at least 200 civilians and left moaning, bleeding wounded overflowing onto the dirt grounds of Monrovia's main hospital.

Unable to advance past Monrovia's port into the heart of the city, Liberia's rebels pledged Thursday to keep fighting until the capital was theirs and Taylor gone.

"Our forces are still in Monrovia, and Taylor is trying to run," rebel defense official Joe Wylie said in Dakar, Senegal.

In Ghana, West Africa's mediators set a deadline for 10 a.m. today for all sides to restore their cease-fire, or see Liberia's internationally brokered peace talks formally end.

Liberia's response late Thursday to Bush's message was restrained, urging the United States to "remain proactive in the peace process."

On Thursday, bitter families placed the bodies of four children, two women and a man in front of the U.S. Embassy, beneath the eyes and guns of Marines standing sentinel behind sandbag bunkers on the roof. The bodies, contorted and some missing limbs, were piled in a heap.

Witnesses said searchers pulled 18 corpses from an evacuated U.S. diplomatic residential compound. It had been filled with thousands of desperate Liberian families seeking sanctuary when at least three rockets slammed into the crowd Wednesday.

Rebels have fought a three-year battle to oust Taylor, a Boston-educated, Libyan-trained ex-warlord who has made an array of enemies in 14 years of fueling West Africa's conflicts.

Taylor is accused in long-standing U.N. sanctions of gun- and diamond-running with West African rebel movements. A U.N.-backed indictment disclosed June 4 accused Taylor of crimes against humanity in his backing of rebels in Sierra Leone, who killed tens of thousands and maimed thousands more with machetes in a 10-year campaign to win that country's diamond fields.

In neighboring Sierra Leone, U.N. helicopters and crews were on standby, ready to fly to Monrovia on "very short notice" to evacuate international workers, U.N. spokesman Patrick Coker said.

WASHINGTON - Ahead of his first trip to Africa, President Bush spelled out his vision for the continent Thursday with plans to deal with bloody civil wars, terrorism and AIDS.

He offered $100-million to beef up security at African airports and seaports.

The president leaves July 7 for a five-day trip to Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. "My trip should signal that I am optimistic about the future of the continent," he told members of the U.S.-African Business Summit. "I also understand that freedom and prosperity are not achieved overnight. . . . I know there are serious obstacles to overcome."

Bush said establishing peace and security throughout Africa was "the first great goal" of U.S. policy in the region.

- Information from Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.

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