Liberia

B

Tubman’s Regime

US-Liberian relations became closer after the United States entered World War II. In 1942 the republic agreed to allow US troops to be based in the country, despite the fact that Liberia did not declare war on the Axis powers until 1944. In 1945 Liberia became one of the original member states of the UN.

Following his election in May 1943, President William V. S. Tubman pursued a policy of national unification and economic development through foreign investment. The latter policy led to the exploitation in the 1950s of the huge iron-ore deposits in the Bomi Hills, located north of Monrovia. In the presidential election of May 1951, women and indigenous property owners voted for the first time, but the few thousand Americo-Liberians living in the coastal region still retained control of the government.

The incumbent Tubman, candidate of the dominant True Whig Party, was re-elected without opposition. The government had suppressed the Reformation and United People’s parties. Their leaders, supported mainly by the indigenous people of the hinterland, were arrested or exiled following the election. President Tubman was returned to office in the 1955 election, but he narrowly escaped assassination during his victory celebration. Thirty people were indicted for treason; two former Cabinet ministers and five others were convicted.

Considerable progress, both social and material, was made during Tubman’s later terms as President. In February 1958 the legislature passed a law making racial discrimination punishable by fine and imprisonment for citizens and by deportation for aliens. During the 1960s a Swedish-American group completed a major iron-ore project at Mount Nimba, and German investors developed iron-ore resources in the Bong Mountains. The Liberian Bank of Industrial Development and Investment was established in 1965 to provide capital for private investment.

During this time President Tubman held a firm rein on power. After some labour unrest within Liberia and coups elsewhere in Africa, he was given emergency powers in February 1966 for 12 months. In 1967 he was re-elected to his sixth term (a year ahead of time), and he was returned the seventh time in May 1971. Two months later he died, and was succeeded by William R. Tolbert, Jr., Liberia’s vice-president since 1951.

C

Violent Change

Under Tolbert’s leadership during the 1970s, Liberia loosened somewhat its close ties with the United States. In 1974 it accepted economic aid from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and in 1978 it joined, with other developing countries, the Lomé Agreement with the European Community (now European Union). Domestically, emphasis was placed on bringing the isolated interior into national political life, and on improving the economic conditions of the indigenous population. In 1979, however, the country was paralysed by riots caused by a proposed increase in the price of rice, the staple food. More than 40 people were killed in the violence.

In 1980, Tolbert’s opponents, emboldened by a court decision recognizing them as an opposition party, openly called for his overthrow. Their leader, Gabriel B. Matthews, and a dozen others were arrested. A month later, on April 12, a bloody coup was staged by army personnel under the leadership of Master Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe. Tolbert and many of his aides were killed. A People’s Redemption Council, headed by Doe, subsequently suspended the constitution and assumed full legislative and executive powers. More than a dozen officials of the previous regime were publicly executed.

Under pressure from the United States and other creditors, Doe’s government issued a new constitution in July 1984 which allowed the return of political parties outlawed since 1980. Doe, however, used his power to assure that opposition parties did not threaten his domination, and he won the presidential election in 1985.

By the late 1980s inflation was rampant, exports were almost non-existent, and more than half the population was considered unemployed. In addition, relations with the United States, Liberia’s major foreign benefactor, deteriorated because of government corruption and human-rights abuses.

D

The Civil War

In December 1989 a group of dissidents began an uprising against the government. The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPLF), a rebel group led by Charles Taylor, soon had an ill-trained army of 10,000 men, and within weeks it controlled much of the countryside. A split among the insurgents only increased the violence as fighting continued into 1990. The multinational ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) peacekeeping force sent to Liberia failed to halt the fighting. Doe was captured and executed by a breakaway faction of rebels in September.

The destruction of Liberia’s economy begun by Doe was completed by the war, which between 1989 and 1996 claimed the lives of more than 150,000 Liberians and left over 1 million people homeless; by 1992 more than one quarter of the population had fled the country as refugees. Efforts negotiated by ECOWAS to halt the fighting failed in 1991 and 1992.

The NPLF and the other rebel group, the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), rejected the provisional government established by ECOWAS, and led by Charles Sawyer. Fighting resumed and it was not until July 1993, following the imposition of an arms embargo by the United Nations Security Council, that a peace accord was negotiated and the terms for a return to a multi-party democracy agreed by the three groups.

A 35-member transitional government and legislature involving the provisional government, the NPLF and ULIMO was established by May 1994, and subsequently agreed on January 1, 1996, as the date for a return to a democratically elected government. However, the whole process was jeopardized by an outbreak of fighting by NPLF and ULIMO dissidents in September, and by a power struggle within the NPLF that led to Taylor being deposed. The fighting spread and the civil war resumed in many areas, despite the continuation of the coalition between the provisional government, the NPLF, and ULIMO, and quickly involved six different factions. Attempts to negotiate a peace collapsed in January 1995, and the war continued.

In September 1995 a transitional coalition government was formed under Wilton Sankawulo. The war was resumed in April 1996 when forces loyal to faction leaders Charles Taylor and Alhaji Kromah attacked rival factions in Monrovia, further damaging the capital’s already weakened infrastructure and causing panic among the remaining foreign residents, thousands of whom sought refuge in US facilities. Prospects for peace once again became extremely uncertain. Two ceasefires called in 1996 failed, and the evacuation of foreign nationals continued, with the United States despatching five warships to the area. In August 1996 a peace agreement was reached and a disarmament programme begun under ECOMOG (the Monitoring Observer Group of ECOWAS).

E

The War’s Aftermath

Despite some minor flare-ups, the disarmament proceeded reasonably smoothly in 1997, with landmines being cleared and roads reopened to allow the return of refugees and the movement of aid convoys. Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in July 1997, with Charles Taylor winning 75 per cent of the vote and his party gaining a majority in the National Assembly. Although nominally deemed to be constitutional, free, and fair, the elections were believed to be constrained by voter intimidation—most people thought that war would have continued had Taylor lost. Taylor appointed his former rival Kromah to the post of chairman of the National Reconciliation Board in December; however, with another rival warlord, Roosevelt Johnson, he was charged with treason in October 1998. Johnson fled the country after seeking refuge at the US Embassy, and Kromah remained at liberty when the trial opened in November. Withdrawal of ECOMOG forces was completed in October 1999.

The northern Liberian town of Voinjama was attacked by rebels from Guinea in April 1999, and subsequent fighting and retaliatory attacks led to the displacement of thousands of people. In addition, Liberia’s support of rebel groups in Sierra Leone and the illegal diamond smuggling trade between the two countries caused international aid donors to threaten suspension of funds. New currency notes were released in March 2000 in an attempt to put an end to two dollar currencies in circulation, a situation that had been causing considerable business difficulties.

In early 2001 the UN Security Council announced its intentions to impose sanctions, including an arms embargo, on Liberia, if it did not make efforts to reduce illegal diamond trading and gun running with rebels in other West African countries. A ban on diamond exports came into force, and Taylor announced the closure of the Sierra Leone border and, at the same time, expelled diplomats from Guinea and Sierra Leone, in a move which threatened to further destabilize relations between the countries. The border was reopened several months later but the violence within the country continued, with the government’s forces embarking on new offensives—it was estimated that over 50,000 people were displaced by the fighting. In February 2002, President Taylor declared a state of emergency as rebels moved in on Monrovia. He claimed that the government was fighting an unfair war against rebels, as it was unable to get new military supplies because of the continuing arms embargo. Taylor felt confident enough to lift the state of emergency in September but the situation rapidly deteriorated with the rebels advancing to positions just outside Monrovia by March 2003. The conflict intensified once more with two rebel groups—Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL)—advancing on Monrovia and continuing their efforts to gain control of the city. Following a period of intense fighting that claimed the lives of hundreds of people in the city, a ceasefire was declared in June, although the attacks and unrest continued. In August soldiers from ECOMOG, a Nigerian-led peacekeeping force, were deployed to the country. Taylor was accused by Sierra Leone of war crimes in June and in August was forced to hand over power to his deputy, Moses Blah. Nigeria promised Taylor asylum.

In October the US forces in the country were replaced by UN peacekeeping forces. Blah was relieved of the interim presidency and was succeeded by Gyude Bryant, who took over the role of Chairman of the National Transitional Government. Over the next couple of years the priorities were to stabilize the country economically and politically and to disarm the rebels. Marked improvements were seen and new investment emerged. More than 20 candidates stood in the country’s presidential election held in October 2005. The poll saw a narrow win for the former footballer George Weah, but he failed to win the 51 per cent necessary for victory and a run-off between Weah and his closest competitor, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, was held the following month. The run-off was won by Johnson-Sirleaf, who secured 59 per cent of the vote. Johnson-Sirleaf, a US-educated economist and former finance minister, became Africa’s first woman head of state.