Former Liberian Top Official Declares That He Is President

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone —  Liberia’s vice president under slain President Samuel K. Doe declared himself president Sunday and told the country’s interim leader to resign.

Harry Moniba fled the country in September after spending three months in hiding following attempts by him and other Liberian politicians to force Doe to resign.

At a news conference in Freetown, he described the interim government of Dr. Amos Sawyer, which was installed in the Liberian capital of Monrovia in October, as “illegitimate, as the Liberian constitution does not allow for interim governments,” and demanded its dismissal.

According to the constitution, Moniba should have become president on the death of Doe on Sept. 9.

“I want him to have respect for a constitution that he contributed to and for him to quit,” Moniba said.

He said he had the support of the main Liberian rebel leaders, Charles Taylor and Prince Yormie Johnson, who are to attend a peace conference in Monrovia next month.

Sawyer, an academic, was put in power by the Economic Community of West African States, which has sent a 7,000-man peace-keeping force to end the country’s bitter, yearlong civil war.

Johnson killed Doe in September after the president and his troops had been holding out for several months against rebels who had seized control of most of the country.

Johnson was originally a subordinate of Taylor, who led the uprising against Doe in December, 1989. The two fell out last February, but Johnson said Saturday that he and Taylor had patched up their differences.

Speaking from Liberia, he told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he and Taylor both wanted Sawyer’s government to resign.