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Taylor, however, vows to keep fighting. The rebel leader decries the interim delegation as a "puppet" of ECOWAS and contends that the credit for Doe's overthrow should be his, since Johnson and his army were trained under Taylor's command before they splintered off into their own faction last March. Taylor last week ordered his troops, which have been bogged down in eastern Monrovia for the past three months, to take the rest of the city at all costs.
Responding to the crisis, Ghanaian Foreign Secretary Obed Asamoah told the BBC in London that it's time the peacekeeping force showed its teeth. Asamoah said the West African troops should enforce the peace and install Sawyer's interim government. His statement contradicted an earlier report that Ghana might withdraw from the regional force. A pullout by Ghana could spell the end of the organization, since it might encourage other member governments with second thoughts to follow suit. ECOWAS, meanwhile, is considering doubling its 3,000-member contingent to Liberia and ordering its troops to take a more active role in enforcing the peace. The future of the peacekeeping force was scheduled to be discussed over the weekend at a meeting of foreign ministers in Gambia.
By week's end Taylor's troops had moved to within firing range of the executive mansion, where Doe loyalists remained dug in. A few blocks away, Johnson's group was holding its position at the city's main barracks. People fleeing the area reported fierce but confused fighting between the presidential guard and both rebel groups. Johnson's forces, while better trained, are much smaller than Taylor's. As long as the regional peacekeeping force remains paralyzed by political indecision, Taylor stands a good chance of taking power -- but not without a lot more bloodshed.