ARMED LOOTERS ROAM STREETS IN LIBERIA : AID GROUPS EVACUATE WAR-TORN NATION.

Byline: Tina Susman Associated Press 

Terrified Liberians were left to fend for themselves Saturday among drugged-out gangs of gunmen and looters running rampant in their capital, as even the world's emergency aid groups abandoned the warring country.

Teen-agers roamed the streets waving automatic rifles and knives, while others cruised in stolen cars, increasing fears that a 1-day-old cease-fire would fail. Boys as young as 10 joined the gangs of thugs.

``We are dying here,'' said Joseph Johnson, a Liberian. ``Where is the international community?''

After eight days of continuous gunfire and sporadic shelling, aid workers said they were pulling out because of the ``absolute anarchy'' in Liberia's seaside capital.

The United Nations and the Red Cross were forced to withdraw when looters overran their offices, they said, making it impossible for them to care for the estimated 60,000 people rendered homeless by the week's fighting in the city, where nearly half of Liberia's 2.6 million people have sought refuge from seven years of civil war.

``There is continuous looting,'' said Red Cross spokesman Rolin Wavre. ``People getting more and more drunk and on drugs, so it's pretty much out of control.''

Even Doctors Without Borders said it was planning to pull its team. Like the Red Cross, the international aid group works in dangerous, violent conditions and is traditionally among the last to leave areas of conflict.

The U.S. military had ferried out 1,655 people by Saturday afternoon, and a U.N.-chartered boat was headed north toward neighboring Sierra Leone carrying its employees and foreign women and children.

About 25 Liberians arrived in Freetown on Saturday after an exhausting overnight sea voyage. About 1,000 more were expected within hours. One passenger, David Freeman, described how even boys - 10 or 12 years old - were joining the fighting in the capital.

``A small-boy unit has now been formed,'' he said, ``and are the most dangerous, roaming the streets in civilian dress.''

World Relief worker Brian Johnson fled with his wife and two daughters Saturday only after rebels stole the family's cars and threatened them, and embassy representatives told them they had to leave, Johnson said today by phone from Dakar, Senegal.

The Johnsons joined a 15-car convoy, sandwiched by cars from a West African peacekeeping force and the embassy, and made their way to the peacekeeping force's base.

En route, Johnson saw a large fire burning in part of the city, and heard the rebels shooting off weapons.

``They were driving very fast up and down the streets - people were sitting on the hoods of the cars,'' he said.

Johnson and his family were airlifted to Freetown, Sierra Leone, by helicopter and then taken by military plane to Dakar.

No one knows how many people have been killed in recent days, although dozens of decaying bodies have been seen on the streets and at least 13 people were confirmed dead.

Pentagon spokesman Brian R. Kilgallen said Saturday that of the foreigners evacuated, 458 were Americans. He said about 70 Americans remained, but even they were expected to be out by today, Kilgallen said in Washington.

In Monrovia, Army Maj. Lew Boone said the U.S. military would continue to evacuate non-Americans after all Americans had been removed.

``They're going to fly until the ambassador says that's enough,'' Kilgallen said.

Under armed U.S. escort, a U.N. convoy brought 20 tons of food Saturday to thousands of people holed up in the Mamba Point district; it was the first food to reach the refugees since fighting broke out last week, Michael Ross, spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, said. His aid group planned to keep six workers in Monrovia, Ross said.

``We're going to keep a skeletal staff in place in case we get an opportunity to get more food in there,'' he said.

The plush Mamba Point Hotel, where `500 people had been hiding for days, was empty Friday night after rebels ransacked it, destroying furniture and stealing clothes, food, money and hotel equipment.

Rebels and government troops began retreating Saturday as African peacekeeping tanks moved into the Mamba Point district, where most foreign embassies and U.N. offices are located. Along the way, they looted what little was left from burned homes and shops, witnesses said.

Warring factions negotiated a cease-fire late Friday with help from visiting West African politicians, according to Gabriel Anyankpele, chief of staff for the 12,000 West African peacekeepers in Liberia.

The truce appeared to be having some effect Saturday.

``Just your ears can tell you that something is different about today,'' said U.S. Ambassador William Milan. ``You don't hear the shelling. If it is true, let's hope it lasts.''

But Liberia's history inspires little hope for enduring calm: Thirteen peace accords have been broken since the war began in 1989, and a truce earlier in the week collapsed within hours.

A spokesman for faction leader Charles Taylor, who sparked the war in December 1989 and is now a member of Liberia's ruling State Council, said Saturday that Taylor agreed to the cease-fire only if rival warlord Roosevelt Johnson surrenders on murder charges.

Until then, spokesman Reginald Goodridge said, Taylor's troops would continue to surround the military barracks where Johnson is believed to be hiding with thousands of supporters.

A U.S. Marine amphibious group is to arrive in a week to help with evacuations. Meanwhile, thousands of Liberians at the diplomatic compound known as the Graystone Annex that houses the U.S. Embassy have set up a small city, organizing neighborhood associations, markets and money-changing booths for refugees.

But there is little food to go around, and almost no medicine. Already, the Red Cross has reported four deaths. Two infants died overnight in the compound of diarrhea, and two adults T`hursday of gunshot wounds. It said 10 others had been wounded by stray bullets in the compound.

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Photo

Photo: Looters roam the streets of Liberia's capital Saturd ay, panicking emergency workers and raising fears that a fledgling cease-fire would end.

Associated Press