LIBERIA: Liberians have placed all their hope in the US, reports Declan Walsh from the capital Monrovia
In the cramped wards of the John F Kennedy hospital, gunmen lay side by side with their victims. On one bed sat Seah Kingsley, cradling her six-year-old daughter Finda. The little girl reached out helplessly. Her eyes were covered in bandages, cut to pieces by a bomb.
Weeks earlier, the pair sought sanctuary but found tragedy. After fighting broke out, and rebels neared the city gates, the pair fled to a camp near the US embassy. But then a shell landed amid the huddling refugees, killing dozens and blasting Finda's face.
"There was a big 'boom!' and then the blood was shooting from her eyes," said Seah who, like many aid workers, believes the bomb was fired by the forces of President Charles Taylor. "Maybe they feel I will go to the Americans for rescue," she said.
In the next room, Col George Lasimeto, of the Taylor forces, was recovering from a gunshot wound to the leg. "The civilians, they are suffering too much," he said in lilting krio, agreeing that the Americans should come to "cease the fire for the citizenry".
They are not the only ones praying for help. Liberians, whose country was founded by returning US slaves 150 years ago, are begging President George Bush to send US peacekeepers. He has sent a team of military advisors to assess the situation. Greeted with whoops of joy by desperate Monrovians, they may report back by the end of this weekend. Up to 2,000 US troops could be sent.
But if Liberians feel they have a special relationship with Mr Bush, it is by no means clear he feels the same way.
Like the rest of the world, the US virtually ignored Liberia's plight of recent years. War between President Taylor and the shadowy Liberians United for the Restoration of Democracy (LURD) spluttered on for years. Relatively few aid agencies are present. Talk of foreign involvement would have invoked hoots of derision.
But since two recent LURD offences - and its coincidence with Mr Bush's trans-African visit - Liberia has found itself flung under the international spotlight. And in the small, sweaty seaside capital of Monrovia, suffering is on a truly grand scale.
There is no electricity or running water. About five aid agencies struggle to meet the most basic needs. Expatriate UN officers have abandoned the city, leaving local relief workers to manage as they can.
Over half a million people - it is hard to tell exactly how many - have crammed into the city centre to avoid the fighting in the suburbs outside. They live in stadiums, schools and churches, government departments, office blocks and even the cavernous Masonic Temple.
The sinister hilltop building - a cross between a cathedral and a massive banqueting hall - was once home to the local Freemason who combined secrecy with local beliefs. Some people believed the masons, who included former president William Tolbert, carried out rituals such as child sacrifice inside. But when fighting erupted again, they vanquished those fears and broke down the doors.
Now the sticky halls are heaving with over 10,000 people who sleep cheek by jowl on the floors and cook their meals on the steps outside, under a crumbling statue of a former Grandmaster. In the foul, thick air of the basement, James Kollie and his wife lay on a square of filthy foam, reading from the Book of Psalms.
They sprinted from their home two weeks ago when a rocket exploded in the street. Later, Rose's sister was raped with a gun.
"It's the Americans we need," she said. "Only they can bring peace, and peace we want." Across town, beleaguered President Taylor roamed between his three mansions, pondering his next move. Circled by rebels and wanted by international war crimes prosecutors, he preaches to the stream of visiting journalists of his belief in God. He may need it.
Liberia's last president who attempted to escape such a siege, Samuel Doe, had his ears cut off in a brutal public execution. As a grim reminder, the video of the killing is still available on the streets.
Mr Taylor has agreed to an offer of asylum in Nigeria but says he won't go until peacekeepers arrive. The US says it won't send anyone until he goes. Compromise may be possible.
A force of 1,000 West African peacekeepers, drawn from the regional ECOWAS bloc, is already being mustered. The US has sent advisers to neighbouring Ghana to assist in preparations; it has also contributed $10 million, according to some reports.
But few believe that African peacekeepers alone will be enough. The last time ECOWAS intervened in Liberia, Mr Taylor intimidated, manipulated and bribed them. In some cases, Nigerian troops actually took part in looting instead of preventing it.
As a Firestone cargo ship sidled up the crumbling quays of Monrovia yesterday - recalling the days when Liberia was largely a rubber plantation for the US multinational - waiting casual labourers said they had little trust in a solely West African force.
"We know that our African brothers get biased. They can be bribed," said Isaac Bundor, 24. "Too much money greed," nodded his colleague Sam Kiazolu.
The ghosts of Somalia haunt Mr Bush from when 18 US soldiers were killed in 1993, triggering a peacekeeping retreat from Africa. But analysts say Liberia is not the same. A few well-trained soldiers could disperse the drug-crazed, ill-disciplined kid soldiers that have ruined the country.
"Those young fellows would just throw away their guns and run away," said Catholic Archbishop Michael K Francis, one of President Taylor's most outspoken critics.
The Irish-educated cleric is due to visit Ireland later this month with the aid agency Trócaire.
And the US should remember its Cold War debt to Liberia, he added. During the 1980s, Ronald Reagan turned a blind eye to terrible human rights abuses by President Samuel Doe to protect the CIA listening post in Monrovia, the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Now that Liberia is almost strategically worthless, the US appears a reluctant saviour.
"We are extremely disappointed with this delay," he said. "For God's sake, they have 150,000 troops in Iraq. Just 500 or 1,000 marines here - would that kill the US?"