Chayee Doe dies after being named LURD leader

Chayee Doe, the younger brother of former Liberian president Samuel Doe, has died two days after being named the new leader of the country's main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), family sources said on Thursday. The sources said the Doe, 37, had died after brain surgery in the American state of Delaware on Wednesday. He was flown to the United States after collapsing in the Liberian capital Monrovia last week and never regained consciousness. His elder brother was an army sargent who came to power in a 1980 coup and ruled Liberia until he was captured and tortured to death by a rebel faction in 1990 in the early stages of Liberia's 14-year civil war. Chayee Doe had been deputy leader of LURD. Hoping that he would recover from his illness, the movement's executive committee had appointed him chairman at an extraordinary meeting on Monday. Former chairman Sekou Conneh, who had led LURD since it took up arms against former president Charles Taylor in 1999, was suspended indefinitely. His removal marked the climax of a long-running leadership battle between supporters of Conneh and his estranged wife Aisha Keita Conneh. The critics of Conneh's leadership, who were mostly military field commanders, accused him of taking decisions single-handedly without their approval and of forgetting the men who had fought in the bush after the signing of a peace agreement in August last year. Conneh, who has made only rare visits to Liberia since the peace deal ended 14 years of civil war, shrugged off his sacking. The former tax official and second hand car dealer who has recently been living in Senegal said his dismissal at LURD leader was "unacceptable to the peace process." His estranged wife, Aisha Keita is popular within the ranks because of her close ties with Guinean President Lansana Conteh, who according to diplomats is LURD's main backer. The rebel movement joined Liberia's coalition government which was formed in October to lead the country to fresh elections in 2005, but Conneh himself did not take any post in the new administration. Despite the turmoil unleashed in the LURD leadership by his sacking and the death of his designated successor, a senior LURD commander told IRIN on Thursday that fighters of the rebel movement would continue handing in their weapons to UN peacekeepers under the terms of Liberia's disarmament programme. "LURD will disarm and has been disarming with or without Sekou Conneh or anyone, the process is moving forward", " said commander Philip Kamara, who is spearheading the group's disarmament program.