Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Liberian rebels accused of killing 5 U.S. nuns Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 20:06:09 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Liberian rebels accused of killing 5 U.S. nuns \BY Nicholas Kotch \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY \DT MONROVIA, Liberia MONROVIA, Liberia - Five American nuns missing in Liberia were slain by fighters loyal to Charles Taylor, the rebel chief whose forces are engaged in a 3-year-old civil war, the country's Roman Catholic archbishop said yesterday. "We know that the NPFL killed them. But their day of reckoning will come," said Archbishop Michael Francis, referring to Mr. Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia. Four student Liberian nuns were killed along with the Americans in a suburb of Monrovia, the semiofficial Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano reported from Rome. No other details were immediately available. In a radio interview, a Taylor aide denied the rebel forces laying siege to the capital had killed the nuns. More than 20,000 people have been killed in the civil war in the West African nation, which was founded in 1847 by freed American slaves. The American nuns were members of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ order in Red Bud, Ill., and one of them had served in Liberia for 20 years. The missionaries, missing for at least 10 days, were apparently stranded in Gardnersville, a Monrovia suburb that is the main stronghold of Mr. Taylor's NPFL. Sisters of the order identified the nuns as Barbara Ann Muttra, Joel Kolmer, Shirley Kolmer, Kathleen McGuire and Agnes Mueller. The Kolmers were first cousins. Archbishop Francis declined to say how the nuns were killed, but he said the information had come from reliable witnesses. The Vatican newspaper said two sisters who escaped had relayed the information. In Washington, the State Department condemned the killings and called for an immediate cease-fire and negotiations to end Liberia's civil war. "The United States is shocked and appalled to hear of the deaths of five American nuns who were killed in Liberia, and condemns this cowardly act," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement. In Monrovia, Archbishop Francis blamed the NPFL in response to remarks by Taylor aide John Richardson, who in an interview broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corp., denied the rebel group was responsible. "I don't know where the bishop gets his information. If this [killing] took place it was not in any area controlled by NPFL," Mr. Richardson said. "Did Bishop Francis find the bodies?" Mr. Richardson, who often serves as a spokesman for Mr. Taylor, said Gardnersville, where the killings apparently occurred, was occupied until Friday by Senegalese troops that are part of the West African forces intervening in Liberia. Mr. Taylor's fresh assault on the capital, which is defended by the West African forces, has touched off a new wave of killings and has sent thousands of people scurrying for safety into Monrovia. "I can assure you that these nuns were never in our area and we have not had any secure control of Gardnersville," Mr. Richardson said. But Archbishop Francis said only Mr. Taylor's fighters had been in the vicinity of the convent where the nuns were missing for the past 10 days. It was by far the worst incident involving foreign missionaries since Mr. Taylor began Liberia's civil war nearly three years ago. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM