Buchanan, Liberia
Rebels captured Buchanan, Liberia’s second-largest city, this week, as fighting worsened in the uprising against President Charles Taylor. Tens of thousands of civilians fled as machine-gun fire and grenade blasts rocked the city. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned rebels that if they continued attacks on civilians they would be tried for war crimes and barred from future leadership of the country. Taylor is already wanted for war crimes. The U.S., under international pressure to intervene, sent an expeditionary force to await orders near the Liberian coast. But the State Department said U.S. troops would not enter Liberia until a cease-fire was in place.
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