Wife overthrows husband as head of Liberian rebels

The leader of Liberia's main rebel movement was declared overthrown yesterday by his wife, who announcedthat she was taking power from her husband with the backing of dozens of his former commanders.

Asha Keita-Conneh made the announcement surrounded by rebel fighters. She is considered to be the power behind her husband's Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) guerrilla movement. "I put him there as chairman. If you open a big business and put your husband in charge, if you see that things are not going the right way, you step him aside and straighten things up," said Mrs Keita-Conneh.

The feud threatens to destabilise Liberia's six-month-old, internationally brokered peace by opening a lasting rift between armed loyalists of husband and wife.

Mrs Keita-Conneh said her husband Sekou Conneh - a little-seen former used-car salesman - was putting the country's peace in jeopardy.

Lurd drove President Charles Taylor from power on 11 August, signing a power-sharing agreement a week later that was meant to end 14 years of war in Liberia. There will soon be 15,000 UN peacekeepers in the country. A process of nationwide disarmament is due to start later this month.

Under the power-sharing deal, Mr Conneh and other leaders are prohibited from holding high office. In recent weeks, he had complained about having no job. Some self-declared Lurd generals had earlier this month said that Mr Conneh was no longer their leader.

Leading rebel officials have pledged fealty to Mrs Keita-Conneh, who is the adopted daughter of President Lansana Conte of neighbouring Guinea - which is seen as the main backer of the three-year-old rebellion.

Speaking on Liberian state radio yesterday, Mr Conneh insisted that it was only a family squabble - and he remained head of Lurd. "I am chairman, even if there was problem between me and my wife, it has been resolved," he said.

Guinea, angered by incursions by President Taylor's forces into its territory in the late 1990s, is alleged to have helped arm and fund Lurd when it rose against President Taylor in 1999. Guinea denies such backing.