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: U.S. wants Taylor to turn over bodies of slain nuns Date: Wed, 4 Nov 92 16:16:30 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD U.S. wants Taylor to turn over bodies of slain nuns \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT MONROVIA, Liberia MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) - The U.S. Embassy yesterday was trying to reach rebel leader Charles Taylor to try to recover the bodies of five American nuns believed slain by his troops. Two Liberian novices who may be the only witnesses to the slayings remained trapped behind guerrilla lines. Diplomatic and Roman Catholic Church sources said they feared for the novices' lives. Three other Liberian novices were reported missing and feared dead. Archbishop Michael Francis would not say where the two living novices are, but other sources said they had been taken to Mr. Taylor's headquarters in central Gbarnga town. Diplomats and church sources said Mr. Taylor must ensure the safety of the novices, whom they declined to name. The American nuns' deaths, widely reported in Monrovian media, have shocked Liberians and foreigners. Liberia is primarily Christian, and the Roman Catholic Church is the country's most influential religious force. It was unclear what effect the slayings would have on the war between Mr. Taylor and a seven-nation West African force. Mr. Taylor could lose key backing from neighboring Ivory Coast, whose president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, is close to the Catholic Church. Archbishop Francis, who blamed Mr. Taylor for the nuns' killings, made an emotional appeal to the U.S. government at a requiem Mass on Monday. "We ask those who have the authority and who have the influence to talk to [Mr. Taylor's rebels], that they will allow us to take our sisters away from the battlefront, where they were slain and are lying there. Let us give them a decent burial," he said. Sisters Barbara Ann Muttra and Mary Joel Kohlmer were gunned down at a roadside north of their convent, probably late Oct. 19 or early Oct. 20. The archbishop said a civilian who knew them saw their bodies on the road Monday. Three other nuns - Sister Kohlmer's cousin, Shirley Kohlmer, Kathleen McGuire and Agnes Mueller - were shot and killed in front of their convent, four miles northeast of downtown Monrovia in the suburb of Gardnersville. They were last seen by a priest Oct. 22, before Mr. Taylor's fighters took over the area. The reason for the slayings is a mystery. One of three remaining American nuns in Liberia, Sister Barbara Brillant, has said Liberians "see the CIA behind every white face" - a reference to the fact that the CIA keeps a listening post and ship-tracking station outside Monrovia. All five slain nuns were white. In addition, Mr. Taylor's troops are notoriously undisciplined. Mr. Taylor has not admitted that the nuns are dead. But his radio station blamed the deaths on a Nigerian soldier from the West African force. 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