GIVE THE WARLORDS A CHANCE

Liberia's armed guerrilla leaders have driven the nominally democratic West African country into the ground with six years of civil war, and so mercilessly that half the population fled. Today, hundreds of thousands of cheering but exhausted civilians lined the streets of Monrovia as several of the chief warlords re-entered the capital for the first time in years. In an elaborate ceremony attended by foreign diplomats, the warlords were seated on a new six-member Council of State. Andrew Purvis, Nairobi bureau chief, reports that they have reason to believe that the ceasefire -- the war's thirteenth -- will hold. "It is more promising this time because the main rebel warlord, Charles Taylor, has come to the capital for the first time in five years. This shows confidence on his part."