World News 12-08-2003 Guns Silenced By Taylor`s Exile who: President Charles Taylor what: Compares himself to Christ in retirement speech where: Liberia when: Yesterday snippet: "The United States has moved its forces closer to Monrovia as Liberian rebels face pressure to start a ceasefire now that former President Charles Taylor is in exile," reports the BBC this morning. "Three American warships could be seen off the Liberian coast for the first time as Mr Taylor left for Nigeria, boosting hopes that US forces would aid West African peacekeepers." The president, described by The Telegraph`s Tim Butcher as a "corrupt warlord who bankrupted his country and caused hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths across west Africa", compared himself to Jesus Christ in his lengthy resignation speech as he offered himself as a "sacrificial lamb" for the sake of peace. But The Sun remarks that he also issued an "Arnie-style `I’ll be back` vow" as he quit. "Almost immediately, the momentum for a peaceful solution to Liberia`s war started to spin faster," says The Independent`s man in Monrovia, Declan Walsh. As well as the US warships, "Nigerian peace-keeping troops started to fan out across government-controlled Monrovia, taking control of checkpoints usually manned by Mr Taylor`s unruly fighters". Taylor is succeeded by his vice-president, Moses Blah. "Rebels have rejected him as a Taylor crony whose strings could be pulled from Calabar," says The Guardian, referring to the Nigerian city in which Mr Taylor is now exiled, "but their guns and mortars stayed silent". [... more]

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