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U.N. forces fire tear gas at Liberia poll protest

Posted on: Friday, 11 November 2005, 11:43 CST

By Katharine Houreld and Alphonso Toweh

MONROVIA (Reuters) - U.N. forces fired tear gas at angry supporters of Liberian soccer star George Weah on Friday after they stoned police and marched to the U.S. embassy to back a demand to halt counting in an election Weah says was rigged.

Police from the U.N. peacekeeping force used the gas and batons to disperse hundreds of Weah supporters after they broke through a line of Liberian riot police trying to hold them back from the imposing beachside U.S. embassy building.

A 20-year-old woman was bleeding from the head after being hit by an U.N. policeman, witnesses said.

This provoked a furious reaction from members of the crowd, who chanted "Wicked U.N."

Earlier, Weah supporters chanted "No Weah, no peace," and "No Weah, no president" and hurled stones at riot police in front of the National Elections Commission (NEC) as U.N. helicopters hovered overhead.

With 97 percent of polling stations' votes counted from Tuesday's runoff ballot, Harvard-trained former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has an unassailable 59.4 percent. But Weah and his Congress for Democratic Change party insist the election was rigged.

"This morning the Congress for Democratic Change filed a written prohibition to the Supreme Court of Liberia to intervene and stop the counting process," Steve Quoah, campaign spokesman for the former AC Milan striker, told journalists.

COUNT GOES ON

NEC chief Frances Johnson-Morris said she had not been instructed to stop counting.

"To the best of my knowledge the Supreme Court has not ruled ... we have not received anything from the Supreme Court to stop counting," she told reporters.

International observers have said Tuesday's runoff, which followed an inconclusive first round last month in which Weah came first, was generally free and fair.

Businesses in some parts of Monrovia closed on Friday as crowds of Weah supporters marched, carrying palm branches.

Weah addressed supporters at the party headquarters and appealed for calm. The election had been intended to draw a line under 14 years of war which racked Africa's oldest republic, founded in 1847 by freed black slaves from America.

"You have to be courageous because we have not lost the election. We want you to have courage. We want you to know that everything we do is peace first and peace last," Weah told a crowd of supporters, mainly young men and women.

"You chose me because I am a peace ambassador. You have a case. While we are looking into the case we want you to remain calm. The streets of Monrovia do not belong to demonstrators. Do not go into the streets to riot," he said.

Quoah said party activists and election workers had reported many fraudulent activities during the poll.

"They are bringing in more evidence of fraud ... the complaints we have received include intimidation, include harassment and prohibiting our polling workers from going into polling stations."

Outside the party's headquarters in Monrovia, many supporters heatedly debated the election result.

"He has won , but they don't want to give it to him ... the election is very unfair and we have evidence to prove it," Yeanto Harris, a young woman wearing a Weah campaign T-shirt, told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn)

Source: REUTERS

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