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American Morning
Liberian President May Soon Step Down
Aired July 04, 2003 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, ANCHOR: Reuters is reporting this morning that Liberia's president, Charles Taylor, has agreed to step down when an international force is in place in the country.
Reuters is also reporting from a Nigerian source that Taylor will accept an offer of asylum in Nigeria. That Reuter source says Taylor had asked for 40 days before leaving, but it's believed Taylor will leave sometime this month.
Now sources said President Bush had given Taylor 48 hours to leave Liberia in an ultimatum yesterday. CNN's John King is joining us now with reaction from the White House to all of this.
Hi, John.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, the official reaction here at the White House is wait a minute. They need to get official confirmation before they can confirm that President Charles Taylor has, in fact, told any other government, or at least the United States government, that he will, indeed, step down. But they are assuming this report is a sign of progress.
As you have noted, President Bush had made clear that he believed President Taylor needs to step down and leave the country. His western African neighbors had made the same point. So had the United Nations.
The question now is, how does this affect the timing of the consideration and, we were told, the all but certain deployment of U.S. forces to lead a peacekeeping force in Liberia? President Taylor, according to the Reuters report, says he wants the troops in first and then he will leave.
The White House position is that President Taylor should leave and then the troops would go in. So they are obviously assuming this report is correct. Still needs to be some details and some negotiations over the logistics of Mr. Taylor leaving the country and an international force going in.
Now we are told that it would involve roughly 1,000 U.S. troops, several thousand more from the western African neighbors. The idea would be, as President Taylor agrees to leave the country, to get a strong ceasefire in place between the rebel factions and Taylor's forces, who have been at war for some 14 years, get a ceasefire in place and send in troops.
A lot of balls in play at the moment, if you will, because of the uncertainty of the exact timetable for President Taylor stepping down. But the one headline out of this development is that it very well could speed up the process of a U.S. peacekeeping mission in West Africa coming quite soon -- Heidi.
COLLINS: John, also curious to know, what would the administration be thinking about Nigeria now and its offer to give asylum to Taylor?
KING: Well, the administration fully supported Nigeria's efforts and the efforts of other Western African countries. Essentially, the White House position was it is up to the leaders in the neighborhood to decide what should happen to President Taylor.
The official White House position is that Taylor should leave the country now but still face trial later. He is under United Nations indictment for war crimes, stemming from the deadly violence over the past many years.
And so the White House position is get him out of the country so that you can have peace and stability and a transitional government, and then decide the issue of when and where he should come to trial.
Some believe there could be a deal in the works to give him immunity from that trial. simply to get him out of the country. The White House official position is, he should stand trial later, but the White House also says, if his neighbors, those most affected by the violence of the past 14 years, want to cut a deal with him just to get him out of the power and out of the picture, that that's fine with the White House.
COLLINS: CNN White House correspondent John King, from Washington this morning. Thanks, John.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 4, 2003 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, ANCHOR: Reuters is reporting this morning that Liberia's president, Charles Taylor, has agreed to step down when an international force is in place in the country.
Reuters is also reporting from a Nigerian source that Taylor will accept an offer of asylum in Nigeria. That Reuter source says Taylor had asked for 40 days before leaving, but it's believed Taylor will leave sometime this month.
Now sources said President Bush had given Taylor 48 hours to leave Liberia in an ultimatum yesterday. CNN's John King is joining us now with reaction from the White House to all of this.
Hi, John.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, the official reaction here at the White House is wait a minute. They need to get official confirmation before they can confirm that President Charles Taylor has, in fact, told any other government, or at least the United States government, that he will, indeed, step down. But they are assuming this report is a sign of progress.
As you have noted, President Bush had made clear that he believed President Taylor needs to step down and leave the country. His western African neighbors had made the same point. So had the United Nations.
The question now is, how does this affect the timing of the consideration and, we were told, the all but certain deployment of U.S. forces to lead a peacekeeping force in Liberia? President Taylor, according to the Reuters report, says he wants the troops in first and then he will leave.
The White House position is that President Taylor should leave and then the troops would go in. So they are obviously assuming this report is correct. Still needs to be some details and some negotiations over the logistics of Mr. Taylor leaving the country and an international force going in.
Now we are told that it would involve roughly 1,000 U.S. troops, several thousand more from the western African neighbors. The idea would be, as President Taylor agrees to leave the country, to get a strong ceasefire in place between the rebel factions and Taylor's forces, who have been at war for some 14 years, get a ceasefire in place and send in troops.
A lot of balls in play at the moment, if you will, because of the uncertainty of the exact timetable for President Taylor stepping down. But the one headline out of this development is that it very well could speed up the process of a U.S. peacekeeping mission in West Africa coming quite soon -- Heidi.
COLLINS: John, also curious to know, what would the administration be thinking about Nigeria now and its offer to give asylum to Taylor?
KING: Well, the administration fully supported Nigeria's efforts and the efforts of other Western African countries. Essentially, the White House position was it is up to the leaders in the neighborhood to decide what should happen to President Taylor.
The official White House position is that Taylor should leave the country now but still face trial later. He is under United Nations indictment for war crimes, stemming from the deadly violence over the past many years.
And so the White House position is get him out of the country so that you can have peace and stability and a transitional government, and then decide the issue of when and where he should come to trial.
Some believe there could be a deal in the works to give him immunity from that trial. simply to get him out of the country. The White House official position is, he should stand trial later, but the White House also says, if his neighbors, those most affected by the violence of the past 14 years, want to cut a deal with him just to get him out of the power and out of the picture, that that's fine with the White House.
COLLINS: CNN White House correspondent John King, from Washington this morning. Thanks, John.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
