Office of the National Spokesman
Liberians United for Reconciliation&Democracy(LURD)
Voinjama, Lofa County, Republic of Liberia
Press Release
September 14, 2002
News report of yesterday,September 13, 2002 on the BBC"Focus On Africa" by Jonathan Paylaylay that Taylor's forces have recaptured the city-town of Bopolu is totally false, misleading and deceptive. Couple of weeks ago, Taylor said he took Voinjama and drove us out of Liberia, and today he is claiming that his forces recaptured Bopolu when we supposed to be out of Liberia according to his lies.
The city-town of Bopolu is still fully under the control of LURD's forces. The fact of the matter is Taylor's combined NPFL-ATU/RUF forces attacked our forces position in upper Gbarpolu county through the jungle from central Liberia with the view of trying to advance on the city-town of Bopolu, but after some five hours of intensive fight our gallant forces dislodged the bandits and thugs, killing over seventeen ATUs, wounded several of them,and captured many arms and boxes of ammunitions which are still being counted by our Defence logistics team in the area.
Fighting is going on in central Liberia and Bomi county near Tubmanburg city and surrounding villages. Our men in central Liberia are also advancing toward the central Liberian city of Gbarnga, which is expected to fall in a couple of days. What we seriously observed in the Tubmanburg and surrounding areas close to Monrovia is that Taylor is planting land mines in these places. It is because of this that we are taking all precautions in our military advances. However, we want to assure all Lilberians that Taylor and his Libyan supported criminal system in Liberia are approaching their end, and we will bring the system down.
We have at the moment some international journalists, specifically Emmanual Goujon and Issouf Sonogo from AFP, and others covering our areas. Therefore, the misleading information coming from the ATU Press Attache in Monrovia should be verify by making contacts with these credible journalists,or their respective agencies just in case the BBC "Focus On Africa" finds it difficult to get our side of the story.
Finally, we hope that the BBC"Focus On Africa" management will seek to clarify and balance their news stories coming from Jonathan Payalaylay, an ex-combatant and former "general" of Taylor's NPFL now serving as a private Press Attache to the ATU/NPFL . We also welcome initiatives by some participants of the Taylor so called "National Reconciliation Conference" held in Monrovia that they want to meet with LURD's leadership. We only suggest that if they want to meet with us as Liberians we will be pleased to meet with them in Bopolu or Voinjama to prove who is in control.
The End