Supreme
Court Chief Justice Gloria Scott administered the oath of office, in
which Bryant swore before parliament to defend Liberia's constitution
and peace accords reached in August, according to Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
The
new President, in turn, swore in his vice president, Wesley Johnson.
Several
West African heads of state were on hand for Bryant's inauguration,
which comes two months after the flight into exile of disgraced
President Charles Taylor, who was at the center of two successive wars
over the last 14 years.
Although
Taylor pledged Monday to support the peace process, he has been
accused of meddling in Liberian affairs and Tuesday claimed that a
plot was afoot to chase him out of Nigeria, his exile home.
Nigerian
President Olusegun Obasanjo and his Ghanaian counterpart John Kufuor
were present for the swearing-in ceremony as was the President of the
African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, a former President of
Mali.
Taylor's
Wife There
Ahead
of Bryant's swearing-in ceremony, Jewel Taylor, Charles Taylor's wife,
voiced her hopes for the war-torn west African country.
"It's
a new chance to start a new page in the history of this nation,"
she told AFP on the sidelines of the swearing-in ceremony.
"I
and my husband, we don't have any regrets. What we did was with a good
heart. We want to see the country move forward," said Taylor, who
retains influence in Liberia. "This country is not for one
person, and change is part of life."
Jewel
Taylor said she was in Monrovia simply to visit and to attend the
induction ceremony.
Of
the Taylors' new life in a luxury villa in Calabar, southern Nigeria,
she said: "Life is very fine there, but of course, we both miss
our country."
She
also sought to refute accusations by Obasanjo and the U.N. special
representative to Liberia that her husband had been meddling in the
peace process, holding frequent telephone conversations with his
supporters.
"It's
not true. He must be the most powerful man on earth after God if from
his exile he can tell people to jump the wall," she said.
Liberians
want Peace
West
African troops serving with the United Nations Mission to Liberia
(MINUL) were posted outside the parliament buildings, and took
positions at major intersections in the Liberian capital Monrovia.
Bryant,
54, a successful entrepreneur and politician who helped set up the
Liberia Action Party (LAP), arrived in Monrovia from neighboring Ghana
Monday to a joyous welcome from thousands of Liberians chanting:
"We want peace, no more war."
Seen
as an independent player in Liberian politics, the soft-spoken Bryant
will lead a 21-member government divided out under an August peace
pact among Taylor loyalists, rebels, the political opposition and
civic groups.
Rebels
Vow To Disarm
 |
|
Taylor
claims he no more influences Liberian politics
|
Rebels
who fought for four years to oust Taylor pledged late Monday to start
disarming as soon as the power handover was completed.
"Right
after the inauguration ceremony, we will start volunteer
disarmament," said Sekou Damate Conneh, head of the main rebel
movement, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD),
and who will be part of the transition government.
"War
is over, my last mission will be completed tomorrow with the induction
ceremony," he told AFP.
For
his part, Taylor issued a statement from his exile home in Nigeria
late Monday urging "all my partisans - supportive well-wishers as
well as armed combatants - to support the peace process. The war is
over."
A
former warlord-turned President, Taylor quit under intense
international pressure on August 11, handing over temporary power to
his deputy Moses Blah.
Nigeria's
Obasanjo has reportedly warned Taylor not to interfere in Liberia's
fragile peace process, and the U.N. special representative in Liberia,
Jacques Klein, said last month that Taylor had jeopardized peace gains
by telephoning Blah and seeking to prolong his influence in the
country.
Taylor
alleged Tuesday that unidentified enemies were planning to attack
Nigerian peacekeepers in his country - who make up the bulk of MINUL -
and put the blame on him.
He
said he feared a plot to turn the people of his host country against
him and persuade them to compel him to leave.
"The
strategy afoot is to orchestrate a scene whereby Nigerians and other
soldiers serving in Liberia are brought in harm's way with armed
combatants believed to be my loyalists, so as to attribute it to
Charles Taylor," he said, in a statement faxed to AFP in Lagos.
"It
is their plan that at such a time, and God forbid, the people of
Nigeria would then look at me with jaundiced eyes and consider me an
enemy of the Nigerian people, thus exposing me to danger," he
said.
"They
would consider me a terrible guest and react negatively toward
me," Taylor's statement said.
"This
type of sinister orchestration now in the works is evident by constant
statements associating me with disruption, un-peaceful and diabolical
actions. All lies!" Taylor declared.
Many
Nigerians are already opposed to the former warlord's exile in a
luxury villa in the southeastern city of Calabar.
Nigeria's
journalists' union and bar association have both called for the former
warlord to be kicked out to face war crimes charges at a U.N.-backed
special tribunal in Liberia's neighbor Sierra Leone.
Liberia,
Africa's oldest black republic, was founded by freed American slaves
in the 19th century and now has a population of some 3.2 million.
