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Blah: Peace will come through negotiation
Editor's Note: CNN Access is a regular feature on CNN.com providing interviews with newsmakers from around the world. (CNN) -- After taking the reins of the presidency of Liberia from Charles Taylor, Moses Blah offered to share power with the rebels and predicted that "within two or three days" he would make progress toward ending the 14-year war. Blah's ties to Taylor date back to the 1980s, when both men attended Moammar Gadhafi's training camps in Libya. Blah was alongside Taylor when he launched his first bloody insurrection in Liberia in 1989, and became a general during the eight-year-long civil war that left 200,000 people dead. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper spoke with President Blah and asked him how he will be different from the former president. BLAH: The fact of the matter is I'm Moses Blah and President Charles Taylor is Charles Taylor, and I want to prove myself. COOPER: There are many critics who worry that Charles Taylor really is not gone. He is in Nigeria, but that basically he will be ruling through you as his proxy. What can you do to assure people that you are independent? BLAH: That is not true. That is not true. He's gone. He would not interfere with the day-to-day activities of the Liberian government. I'm truly an independent president. I have my Cabinet ministers. I have a government set up here. And we are operating on this ground and not from Nigeria. COOPER: How will you bring peace to Liberia? BLAH: By negotiation. We are talking. Now, I've started talking already. Believe me, you will soon see it happen. COOPER: Mr. President, there are some 2,300 or so U.S. Marines in warships off the coast of your country. Do you want them to intervene? BLAH: Yes, yes. I'm appealing to them. Please come to Liberia, save us, because we are dying, we are hungry. COOPER: Former President Taylor has been indicted by the United Nations on 17 counts of war crimes relating to the civil war in Sierra Leone. Will you cooperate with the United Nations to try to bring Charles Taylor up on those charges, to have him face those charges? BLAH: Well, it is not possible for me now, because he's in Nigeria. I am in Liberia, and Charles Taylor is not here. COOPER: Do you believe Charles Taylor is, in fact, guilty of war crimes? BLAH: I don't think so. This court you are talking about in Sierra Leone, this court is a local court. It has no jurisdiction over Liberia. So, I don't know what the possibilities of grabbing Charles Taylor, the president of our country, to go to Sierra Leone to face the local court in Sierra Leone. COOPER: What message would you want to send to President Bush? BLAH: My message to President Bush is: Please, President Bush, come and save Liberia. We have a long, long ties. Please save us from this nightmare. We are suffering, and we are dying.
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