Liberian president plans to step down, but what next?

This was a weekend of waiting in Monrovia. The city is beginning to come to life again - shops are reopening, streets are being swept, and piles of trash are being removed - but there is an anxious mood all the same.

The question on everyone's mind here is whether President Charles Taylor will indeed step down Monday as promised, and whether his successor - expected to be Vice President Moses Blah - will be accepted by the rebels and by the people.

Mr. Taylor says he will step down in a ceremony Monday at 11:59 a.m., and at least two influential African presidents, Thabo Mbekiof South Africa and of Nigeria, are scheduled to attend the event to ensure things go as planned.

But while all eyes are focused on Taylor's impending departure, important questions linger about what will happen in the post-Taylor period.

The rebels have said they will not accept Mr. Blah, a former Taylor general and party insider - and there are not yet enough peacekeepers on the ground to hold the peace if fighting resumes.

"Can you tell me the difference between Moses Blah and Taylor?" asks Sekou Fofana, an official with the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), who control part of Monrovia, including the city's strategic port.

"They are the same. We will not accept Moses Blah to take on the seat of power.... We will not allow any military man to take over."

While making their dissatisfaction with Blah known, the rebels have sent mixed messages about how exactly they will respond to Monday's expected transition.

Some say they will take up arms immediately; others say they will wait until the negotiations taking place in Accra, Ghana - where government officials, opposition parties, and rebel groups including LURD and Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) are trying to create a transitional government - are complete.

In theory, Blah's presidency would be only temporary, a transition between Taylor and the new government being finalized in Accra. Eventually, new elections should be held.

West African leaders who have pressured Taylor to step down have emphasized that any transition must take place under the Liberian Constitution. Like the US Constitution it is modeled after, it calls for the vice president to step in if the president can no longer serve.

And the president himself, who seems to want his departure to have at least the appearance of legality, is going through the process of an official handover.

But this facade of legitimacy may be rapidly crumbling. On Thursday, Taylor called a joint session of the Liberian Congress to name his successor. Only 33 of the 90 representatives attended. They sat clustered in one corner of the country's House of Representatives while looters carried out sofas and air conditioners from nearby offices.

Outside, the national director of police patrolled the city, his five motorcycle guards in tow, pulled along by rope because of a lack of fuel anywhere in the city.

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