Liberian Government soldiers were reported today to have entered a United Nations compound here and abducted about 40 refugees who had taken shelter there in the face of a continuing advance by rebels toward this nervous capital.
Witnesses said that eight soldiers, some of them wearing masks, entered the compound of the United Nations Development Program early this morning and shot to death a civilian security guard. They then rounded up the refugees, stripped them of their clothes and took them away to a deserted site on the outskirts of the city. According to several refugees who managed to escape from the abductors, the others were later shot and killed by the soldiers. This afternoon, four unidentified bodies were found near the place where the incident was said to have occurred. In all, about 400 refugees had been sleeping at the United Nations compound, most of them people who came from Nimba County in the north where the rebels are said to have drawn the bulk of their support among members of the region's Gio and Mano tribes.
The encampment of refugees grew in the last two weeks. Last Friday, about 200 of the Gio and Mano tribespeople came to the United States Embassy seeking safety and shelter. They were told by officials that there was liitle that could be done for them and they were directed to the United Nations and the International Red Cross. Speaking of the attackers today, Michael Heyn, the United Nations representative in Monrovia, described the group that stormed the compound: "From the reports we have, they were army soldiers, dressed in army uniforms, driving army trucks," he said. "The guards tried to prevent them from coming in, they shot one and bayoneted another, and they began shooting indiscriminately. We were told they grabbed people with children in their arms and threw them on the trucks." More than 300 people remained at the compound after the assault.
Mr. Heyn added that he was "completely astounded and unbelieving" that such an incident could happen and said that it was a serious infringement of international law. Because of the incident, the United Nations Secretary General announced in New York today that it had ordered the immediate evacuation of all personnel from Liberia. The move is expected to complicate relief efforts because the United Nations remains one of the main agencies providing food, and organizing medical help for the tens of thousands of displaced people who have fled northeastern Liberia since the fighting began five months ago.
Late this afternoon, President Samuel K. Doe went to the compound to talk to diplomats. As he entered the gates, he was confronted by an angry crowd. "I want you to know that those people who would do this kind of thing, they are doing it on their own," the President said, "and I'm going to deal with them drastically."
The brief speech was met with scattered hissing, and some of the young men in the crowd taunted the soldiers who were with the President. ''Don't believe him! Don't believe him!'' one of the refugees shouted.
The warfare started when about 250 guerrillas invaded half a dozen hamlets in the northeast region. The Liberian Government sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. Since then the rebels, led by Charles Taylor, a former Cabinet member under Mr. Doe, have increased their force by several thousand and have pushed the army virtually out of of Nimba County, Liberia's primary agricultural, mining and logging region. The rebels now sey they have beseiged Buchanan, the port east of Monrovia.
Source: New York Times
Wednesday, May 30, 1990
Liberia's Leader Finds Himself With Few Allies
The small circle of confidants with whom President Samuel K. Doe has surrounded himself was notably smaller today with many of the palace regulars having left this capital in the face of an approaching insurgency. "A lot of them have just disappeared. They're fleeing a sinking ship," said a prominent politician here who, citing prudence, asked that his name not be used. He noted that the absence of these people became embarrassingly apparent last week when a rally in support of Mr. Doe was held on the steps of the presidential mansion. Members of the Liberian leader's family were there, but virtually all the members of his once closely knit political coterie were absent. With rebel forces advancing in recent days to a point within 35 miles of the capital, Mr. Doe is increasingly an isolated and besieged figure.
Among those who have not been seen here and are now believed to have fled the country is one of the President's closest friends and collaborators, J. Emmanuel Bowier, the Minister of Information. Other high-profile Government figures who have dropped out of sight are Emmanuel Shaw, the Minister of Finance, and Elijah Taylor, the Minister of Planning. "It's nearly impossible these days to get to someone who's really in charge," said an African diplomat from a neighboring country. "The whole Government seems to be run by acting ministers."
The leadership void is perhaps most noticeable in the Information Ministry, which seems rudderless since Mr. Bowier left for Washington a month ago as part of a delegation that sought to explain the fighting to American officials. Back in Monrovia, no news briefings were scheduled for weeks, and when official reports about the fighting were finally issued, they were widely regarded as unreliable. "We look to foreign sources to tell us what's happening in the war because the Government is always so slow, and in that climate a lot of rumors fly," said Winston Tubman, a lawyer and son of the late Liberian President, William V. S. Tubman.
A Western diplomat who has seen the President in recent days said "he is flying by the seat of his pants. He's getting information from a very narrow range of sources," the envoy added.
Initially, President Doe publicly dismissed the rebels as little more than an annoyance, a small band of lightly armed and poorly trained malcontents. This view was reinforced by some of the military advisers who repeatedly insisted that the rebels were on the verge of defeat. "He's been very badly informed about the war," said a politician who remains close to the President. He added that the problems are compounded because Mr. Doe has a low tolerance for criticism. The President, who was an army master sergeant when he led 17 noncommissioned officers in a coup 10 years ago in which President William R. Tolbert Jr. and others were bayoneted and shot to death on a beach below the executive mansion.
On seizing power, Sergeant Doe, an 11th-grade dropout who had been trained two years earlier by a United States Special forces unit, became the 20th Liberian head of state and the first one who was not a direct descendent of the freed American slaves who founded this country in 1847. During the early years of his presidency, Mr. Doe was helped by a group of young, educated civilian technocrats who included Charles Taylor, the man leading the rebels now, a force that calls itself the National Patriotic Front. Last June, after several years of night courses and private tutoring, Mr. Doe graduated from the University of Liberia, where he received a degree in political science. He wrote his senior thesis on relations between Liberia and the United States.
In a recent interview at a guest house near the executive mansion, Mr. Doe made clear his disdain for Mr. Taylor, referring to the man who had once served in his Cabinet as a fugitive from justice. In that conversation the President portrayed himself as a Liberian patriot. "I wanted you to know that there is nothing I love more than my country, and I want to do anything to bring peace," he said. He has also told associates, however, that the one thing he will not do is resign under pressure. "He was thrust into leadership at a relatively young age, with absolutely no preparation, so the pressures have been intense," a Western diplomat said. "Still, a lot of people don't understand him."
This diplomat reflected the views of several others when he described Mr. Doe as having a ruthless streak when dealing with his enemies. Mr. Doe is particularly bitter, according to several Liberians, about the growing disaffection of American officials with his Government. "Doe really believes that the United States is partially to blame for the Taylor invasion," a Liberian politician said. "He believes the Americans have given aid to the rebels."
Others who have seen President Doe in recent days say he has become more elusive and enigmatic than ever. He is rarely seen in public, and for security reasons, is said to sleep in a different house every night. He is reported to have sent his wife, Nancy, and six children to Britain to stay until the crisis is resolved. "He's determined to stick this out, and he thinks he can win," a Liberian said. "Hardly anyone else here is that confident."
Source: New York Times
Among those who have not been seen here and are now believed to have fled the country is one of the President's closest friends and collaborators, J. Emmanuel Bowier, the Minister of Information. Other high-profile Government figures who have dropped out of sight are Emmanuel Shaw, the Minister of Finance, and Elijah Taylor, the Minister of Planning. "It's nearly impossible these days to get to someone who's really in charge," said an African diplomat from a neighboring country. "The whole Government seems to be run by acting ministers."
The leadership void is perhaps most noticeable in the Information Ministry, which seems rudderless since Mr. Bowier left for Washington a month ago as part of a delegation that sought to explain the fighting to American officials. Back in Monrovia, no news briefings were scheduled for weeks, and when official reports about the fighting were finally issued, they were widely regarded as unreliable. "We look to foreign sources to tell us what's happening in the war because the Government is always so slow, and in that climate a lot of rumors fly," said Winston Tubman, a lawyer and son of the late Liberian President, William V. S. Tubman.
A Western diplomat who has seen the President in recent days said "he is flying by the seat of his pants. He's getting information from a very narrow range of sources," the envoy added.
Initially, President Doe publicly dismissed the rebels as little more than an annoyance, a small band of lightly armed and poorly trained malcontents. This view was reinforced by some of the military advisers who repeatedly insisted that the rebels were on the verge of defeat. "He's been very badly informed about the war," said a politician who remains close to the President. He added that the problems are compounded because Mr. Doe has a low tolerance for criticism. The President, who was an army master sergeant when he led 17 noncommissioned officers in a coup 10 years ago in which President William R. Tolbert Jr. and others were bayoneted and shot to death on a beach below the executive mansion.
On seizing power, Sergeant Doe, an 11th-grade dropout who had been trained two years earlier by a United States Special forces unit, became the 20th Liberian head of state and the first one who was not a direct descendent of the freed American slaves who founded this country in 1847. During the early years of his presidency, Mr. Doe was helped by a group of young, educated civilian technocrats who included Charles Taylor, the man leading the rebels now, a force that calls itself the National Patriotic Front. Last June, after several years of night courses and private tutoring, Mr. Doe graduated from the University of Liberia, where he received a degree in political science. He wrote his senior thesis on relations between Liberia and the United States.
In a recent interview at a guest house near the executive mansion, Mr. Doe made clear his disdain for Mr. Taylor, referring to the man who had once served in his Cabinet as a fugitive from justice. In that conversation the President portrayed himself as a Liberian patriot. "I wanted you to know that there is nothing I love more than my country, and I want to do anything to bring peace," he said. He has also told associates, however, that the one thing he will not do is resign under pressure. "He was thrust into leadership at a relatively young age, with absolutely no preparation, so the pressures have been intense," a Western diplomat said. "Still, a lot of people don't understand him."
This diplomat reflected the views of several others when he described Mr. Doe as having a ruthless streak when dealing with his enemies. Mr. Doe is particularly bitter, according to several Liberians, about the growing disaffection of American officials with his Government. "Doe really believes that the United States is partially to blame for the Taylor invasion," a Liberian politician said. "He believes the Americans have given aid to the rebels."
Others who have seen President Doe in recent days say he has become more elusive and enigmatic than ever. He is rarely seen in public, and for security reasons, is said to sleep in a different house every night. He is reported to have sent his wife, Nancy, and six children to Britain to stay until the crisis is resolved. "He's determined to stick this out, and he thinks he can win," a Liberian said. "Hardly anyone else here is that confident."
Source: New York Times
Friday, May 18, 1990
War of Quick but Brutal Clashes Unfolds in Liberia
A week later, the evidence is still here. Lying in two shallow ditches behind the village are 15 bodies, swollen and decaying in the sweltering heat of the West African sun. People who are fleeing from this small village and surrounding hamlets say they saw Government troops round up people in six villages and shoot many here before the soldiers ran away on May 9. But the villagers said the gruesome outburst here was hardly unusual. The fighting began last December, when guerrillas opposed to Liberia's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, invaded the lushly forested hills here in the north. The Liberian Government then sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. Since then, a war of small, quick and often brutal engagements has unfolded, attracting little international attention.
The rebels assertion that they control 75 percent of rural Liberia is clearly excessive. But they appear to be able to move freely in more than a third of the country, making what they call liberated zones a practical reality. No definitive accounting of civilian casualties has been compiled. But Western diplomats and missionaries and other travelers through the northeastern corner of Liberia, where the fighting has centered, as well as Liberians with friends and relatives in the area, put the figure of those killed at 700 civilians or more. The Government in Liberia has not sought to deny or play down such reports.
A three-day visit through northeastern Liberia, in the company of rebel guides, showed that the guerrilla force of at least a thousand people has turned hundreds of square miles of the country into a war zone of charred huts and crumbled and blocked bridges that give them control of key roads. The guerrillas seem well equipped and appear to be at least as disciplined as the Government forces. Although the rebels also assert that they have a clandestine presence in Monrovia and the port of Buchanan, Charles Taylor, the former minister who is leading the revolt, said the rebel strategy is to gain control of rural Liberia before trying to invade urban areas. He made his comments during an interview at his base, a former Baptist mission in Tapeta, about 130 miles east of Monrovia. In this area where the rebel forces are in control, the signs of warfare are everywhere - at roadblocks guarded by heavily armed men wearing tattered rags, in the machine-gun nests on hilltops, in the trucks loaded with rebels hurtling through the countryside.
Production in the country's vital mining and logging industries has virtually halted, and the sudden flight of tens of thousands of farmers from the agriculturally rich Nimba region has clouded the prospect for this year's vital rice harvest. Nearly 200,000 of the 270,000 people estimated to reside in Nimba County have fled their homes because of the fighting and have sought sanctuary in neighboring Guinea, the Ivory Coast or in and around the Liberian capital, Monrovia. Government administration in Nimba County has ceased to function and the turmoil here, many Liberians fear, will soon threaten the rest of the nation unless a settlement is reached soon. Nonetheless, ever since the rebellion began and as recently as last week, General Doe has repeatedly asserted in Monrovia that his troops are maintaining complete control of the country. The rebels, General Doe has said, are only an annoyance, a small band of lightly armed and poorly trained dissidents fighting in isolated mountainous areas.
Mr. Taylor asserted that the insurgency was gainining momentum as it headed toward the capital. "I can assure you that we are in striking distance of Monrovia," Mr. Taylor said in the interview. Mr. Taylor, 42 years old, a stocky man of medium height with a trim beard, is a former Cabinet minister who is remembered by many Liberians for fleeing the country in 1986 after being accused of embezzlement. The rebel leader told reporters today that the charges were false and that he had been framed by General Doe.
On Saturday, the rebels captured Yekepa, site of Liberia's biggest industrial complex, an iron-ore mine. Today, heavy fighting took place around Buchanan, which the rebels say they have surrounded. Residents near the airport at Robertsfield, about 25 miles east of Monrovia, reportedly have begun to flee as fighting draws near. As Western reporters were escorted by rebel troups through Nimba and Grand Bassa counties, villagers waved, chanted and danced to show their support. "Our leader Mr. Taylor! Our leader Mr. Taylor!" they shouted. 'Doe Has Been Bad' But when asked what they thought about the rebel leader, many of the villagers confessed that they knew virtually nothing about him. Indeed, what appears to have driven many to the rebel cause was not Mr. Taylor, but rather their hatred for General Doe.
In addition to the villagers, human-rights monitors, among them members of Amnesty International and Africa Watch, based in London and Washington respectively, said they had received reports that soldiers engaged in vicious and mostly arbitrary reprisals against people they believed were sympathetic to the rebel cause. Asked about reports that Liberian soldiers were abusing unarmed civilians, General Doe offered no apologies and insisted that Government troops only pursued rebels.
Last week, Monrovia was awash in rumors that the Government was seeking a negotiated settlement with the rebels. "Doe has begun to realize that things are not going his way, and if he doesn't act soon, the rebels are going to be camped on the lawn of the executive mansion," said an African diplomat from a neighboring country.
Mr. Taylor told reporters that he wanted to get rid of General Doe and install democracy. And while he has not ruled out negotiations, he said there would be no bargaining as long as General Doe is in office. "We want Doe gone," Mr. Taylor said. "Dead or alive."
Source: New York Times
The rebels assertion that they control 75 percent of rural Liberia is clearly excessive. But they appear to be able to move freely in more than a third of the country, making what they call liberated zones a practical reality. No definitive accounting of civilian casualties has been compiled. But Western diplomats and missionaries and other travelers through the northeastern corner of Liberia, where the fighting has centered, as well as Liberians with friends and relatives in the area, put the figure of those killed at 700 civilians or more. The Government in Liberia has not sought to deny or play down such reports.
A three-day visit through northeastern Liberia, in the company of rebel guides, showed that the guerrilla force of at least a thousand people has turned hundreds of square miles of the country into a war zone of charred huts and crumbled and blocked bridges that give them control of key roads. The guerrillas seem well equipped and appear to be at least as disciplined as the Government forces. Although the rebels also assert that they have a clandestine presence in Monrovia and the port of Buchanan, Charles Taylor, the former minister who is leading the revolt, said the rebel strategy is to gain control of rural Liberia before trying to invade urban areas. He made his comments during an interview at his base, a former Baptist mission in Tapeta, about 130 miles east of Monrovia. In this area where the rebel forces are in control, the signs of warfare are everywhere - at roadblocks guarded by heavily armed men wearing tattered rags, in the machine-gun nests on hilltops, in the trucks loaded with rebels hurtling through the countryside.
Production in the country's vital mining and logging industries has virtually halted, and the sudden flight of tens of thousands of farmers from the agriculturally rich Nimba region has clouded the prospect for this year's vital rice harvest. Nearly 200,000 of the 270,000 people estimated to reside in Nimba County have fled their homes because of the fighting and have sought sanctuary in neighboring Guinea, the Ivory Coast or in and around the Liberian capital, Monrovia. Government administration in Nimba County has ceased to function and the turmoil here, many Liberians fear, will soon threaten the rest of the nation unless a settlement is reached soon. Nonetheless, ever since the rebellion began and as recently as last week, General Doe has repeatedly asserted in Monrovia that his troops are maintaining complete control of the country. The rebels, General Doe has said, are only an annoyance, a small band of lightly armed and poorly trained dissidents fighting in isolated mountainous areas.
Mr. Taylor asserted that the insurgency was gainining momentum as it headed toward the capital. "I can assure you that we are in striking distance of Monrovia," Mr. Taylor said in the interview. Mr. Taylor, 42 years old, a stocky man of medium height with a trim beard, is a former Cabinet minister who is remembered by many Liberians for fleeing the country in 1986 after being accused of embezzlement. The rebel leader told reporters today that the charges were false and that he had been framed by General Doe.
On Saturday, the rebels captured Yekepa, site of Liberia's biggest industrial complex, an iron-ore mine. Today, heavy fighting took place around Buchanan, which the rebels say they have surrounded. Residents near the airport at Robertsfield, about 25 miles east of Monrovia, reportedly have begun to flee as fighting draws near. As Western reporters were escorted by rebel troups through Nimba and Grand Bassa counties, villagers waved, chanted and danced to show their support. "Our leader Mr. Taylor! Our leader Mr. Taylor!" they shouted. 'Doe Has Been Bad' But when asked what they thought about the rebel leader, many of the villagers confessed that they knew virtually nothing about him. Indeed, what appears to have driven many to the rebel cause was not Mr. Taylor, but rather their hatred for General Doe.
In addition to the villagers, human-rights monitors, among them members of Amnesty International and Africa Watch, based in London and Washington respectively, said they had received reports that soldiers engaged in vicious and mostly arbitrary reprisals against people they believed were sympathetic to the rebel cause. Asked about reports that Liberian soldiers were abusing unarmed civilians, General Doe offered no apologies and insisted that Government troops only pursued rebels.
Last week, Monrovia was awash in rumors that the Government was seeking a negotiated settlement with the rebels. "Doe has begun to realize that things are not going his way, and if he doesn't act soon, the rebels are going to be camped on the lawn of the executive mansion," said an African diplomat from a neighboring country.
Mr. Taylor told reporters that he wanted to get rid of General Doe and install democracy. And while he has not ruled out negotiations, he said there would be no bargaining as long as General Doe is in office. "We want Doe gone," Mr. Taylor said. "Dead or alive."
Source: New York Times
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