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MONROVIA, Liberia - The new leader of Liberia, Moses Blah, was a feared general in Charles Taylor's faction during Liberia's last 1989-96 civil war.
Blah, 56, trained with Taylor in Libya for three years during the late 1980s and was among the first 200 forces who crossed from neighboring Ivory Coast to launch the uprising against then-President Samuel Doe in 1989.
The war killed more than 100,000 Liberians and left the country in ruins.
Blah and Taylor are so close that rebels who control much of Liberia initially said they wouldn't accept him. While it's still not clear if he will have any real power as president, insurgents now say he can remain in office until a transitional government is formed to oversee fresh elections.
Ghana President John Kufuor said Monday that that will happen in October.
Last month, Blah was arrested for 10 days on charges of conspiring with Americans to overthrow Taylor. But he puts the incident down to a misunderstanding.
Blah became Taylor's inspector general in charge of discipline during the war - reputedly a euphemism for executions. His first wife was killed by Doe's forces.
Despite his fearsome reputation, Blah is a quiet, unassuming man in flowing African robes who drives himself around Monrovia in a Jeep, in contrast to the flashy motorcades of other government officials.
A mechanic by training, he has traveled extensively, first as a student in Germany, later as envoy for Taylor's movement, and finally as Liberia's ambassador to Libya and Tunisia.
He insists he has no political aspirations and expresses nostalgia for his army days when he was "very close to the action." He says he will reach out to Liberia's current and former rebels living in exile.
"Let bygones be bygones," he said. "If there is power, we can share it."