The journey is not yet finished (100)

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

The journey is not yet finished (100)

(Part hundred, Depok, West Java, Indonesia, 19 September 2014, 3:57 pm)

Ebola outbreak now plaguing African countries, particularly in West Africa such as Liberia:

UN Security Council Holds Emergency Meeting about Ebola

The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting about how to stem the spread of the virus × Ebola, which has killed nearly 2,600 people in West Africa.

WHO head Margaret Chan (left) and David Nabarro UN officials to provide information about the condition of Ebola in West Africa, in a press conference in Washington DC (3/9).

WHO head Margaret Chan (left) and David Nabarro UN officials to provide information about the condition × Ebola in West Africa, in a press conference in Washington DC (3/9).

In a meeting on Thursday (18/9), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Margaret Chan outlines an international action plan to stem the threat.

The UN Security Council will hold a vote on the proposed × Americans are calling for member states to send immediate aid, field hospitals and health workers to countries affected × Ebola, and repeal restrictions on travel to those countries.

Ads by Trust Media Viewer × America announced this week that week at the request of Liberia, the United States will deploy 3,000 troops to West Africa to coordinate medical and humanitarian response on Ebola.

New figures released by the World Health Organization on Thursday showed the number of Ebola cases reached more than 5,300 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and Liberia became the epicenter of the outbreak. Nigeria also has reported 21 cases with eight deaths.

The WHO report noted that the number of cases continues to rise in the capital of Liberia and Sierra Leone's capital, and the two countries are very far short in Ebola treatment centers.

The UN estimates it will need a billion dollars to combat the deadly disease in the next six months.

Liberia Fire officials were not Return to Fight Ebola

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been sacked 10 senior officers who defied orders to return to his country and help eradicate

The officials, including assistant ministers, deputy ministers and the Commissioner, in August, has been asked to return to Liberia.

The African countries hard hit by the Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 2,400 people in West Africa.

Humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders has called the situation in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as catastrophic as the health systems of these countries are not able to handle large amounts of Ebola patients. The virus was also killed many competent medical personnel, causing the shortage in most of the countries affected.

Officials in Sierra Leone Sunday confirmed a doctor again - which to-four-died from the disease. (VOA)

History of Liberia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Republic of Liberia

Liberia was established by citizens of the United States as a colony for former African American slaves and their free black descendants. It is one of only two sovereign states in the world that were started by citizens of a political power as a colony for former slaves of the same political power: Sierra Leone was begun as a colony for resettlement of Black Loyalists and poor blacks from England for the same purpose by Britain.

Map of Liberia circa 1830

Historians believe that many of the indigenous peoples of Liberia migrated there from the north and east between the 12th and 16th centuries AD. Portuguese explorers established contacts with people of the land later known as "Liberia" as early as 1461. They named the area Costa da Pimenta (Pepper Coast) because of the abundance of melegueta pepper. In 1602 the Dutch established a trading post at Grand Cape Mount but destroyed it a year later. In 1663, the British installed trading posts on the Pepper Coast. No further known settlements by non-African colonists occurred along the Grain Coast (an alternative name) until the arrival in 1821 of free blacks from the United States.

Colonization (1821–1847)[edit]

Main article: American Colonization Society

From around 1800, in the United States, people opposed to slavery were planning ways to alleviate the problem. Some abolitionists and slaveholders discussed the idea of setting up a colony in Africa for freed African-American slaves. The first ship, Mayflower of Liberia (formerly Elizabeth), departed New York on February 6, 1820, for West Africa, with 86 settlers.[1][2] Between 1821 and 1838, the American Colonization Society developed the first settlement, which would be known as Liberia.[3] On July 26, 1847, it declared its independence.[4]

First ideas of colonization[edit]

As early as the period of the American Revolution, many white members of American society thought that African Americans could not succeed in living in their society as free people. Some considered blacks physically and mentally inferior to whites, and others believed that the racism and societal polarization resulting from slavery were insurmountable obstacles for integration of the races. Thomas Jefferson was among those who proposed colonization in Africa: relocating free blacks outside the new nation.[5]

Growing numbers of free blacks[edit]

After 1783 the ranks of free blacks expanded markedly, due both to manumission of the enslaved in the South during the first two decades after the Revolutionary War, attributable both to slaveholders inspired by its ideals and to others inspired to manumission by Quaker, Methodist and Baptist preachers active in those years. The Northeast states abolished slavery following the war, generally on a graduated basis where it was still economically viable, as in the mid-Atlantic states.[citation needed]

In 1800 and 1802, slave rebellions occurred (see Gabriel’s rebellion) in Virginia, and were brutally suppressed by slaveholders. Some planters feared that free blacks would encourage slaves to run away or revolt. From 1782–1810, the percentage of free blacks in the Upper South increased from less than one percent to 13.5%. In the nation as a whole, the number of free people of color also increased. In 1790, there were 59,467 free blacks, out of a total U.S. population of almost four million and a total black U.S. population of 800,000. By 1800, there were 108,378 free blacks in a population of 7.2 million.[citation needed] These factors significantly influenced the popularity of the concept of colonization as a solution to the "problem " of free blacks.[citation needed]

Sierra Leone[edit]

Paul Cuffee in 1812.

In 1787, Britain had started to resettle the Black Poor of London in the colony of Freetown in modern-day Sierra Leone, many of whom were Black Loyalists who had been freed in exchange for their services during the American Revolution. The Crown also offered resettlement to former slaves from Nova Scotia. The wealthy African-American shipowner Paul Cuffee thought this was a worthwhile exercise, and with support from certain members of Congress and British officials conveyed 38 American Blacks to Freetown in 1816 at his own expense. Despite such voyages ceasing with his death in 1817, his private initiative served to arouse public interest.[citation needed]

Cape Mesurado[edit]

In this same period, on the initiative of the Virginian politician Charles F. Mercer and the Presbyterian minister Robert Finley from New Jersey, in 1817 the American Colonization Society (ACS) was founded. The society aimed to help freed blacks colonize outside of the United States, and supporting them to relocate to Africa.[3]

From January 1820, the ACS sent ships from New York to West Africa. The first had eighty-eight free black emigrants and three white ACS agents on board, who intended to seek an appropriate area to ground a settlement. After several attempts and hardships, ACS representatives in the Nautilus in December 1821 succeeded, perhaps with some threat of force, to buy Cape Mesurado, a 36-mile long strip of land near present-day Monrovia, from the indigenous ruler King Peter.[citation needed]

From the beginning, the colonists were attacked by indigenous peoples, such as the Malinké tribes. In addition, they suffered from diseases, the harsh climate, lack of food and medicine, and poor housing conditions.[6]

Expansion[edit]

Up until 1835, five more colonies were started by American Societies other than the ACS, and one by the U.S. government, all on the same West African coast. The first colony on Cape Mesurado was extended, along the coast as well as inland, sometimes by use of force. In 1838 these colonies came together to create the Commonwealth of Liberia. Monrovia would be named the capital.[3] By 1842, four of the other American colonies were incorporated into Liberia, and one was destroyed by indigenous people. The colonists of African-American descent became known as Americo-Liberians. Not only were many racially mixed and of European descent, but their education, religion and culture made them distinct from the indigenous peoples, with whom they did not identify.[citation needed]

Handing over command to Americo-Liberians[edit]

The maturing colony was gradually given more self-governance. In 1839, it was renamed the Commonwealth of Liberia; 1841 saw the Commonwealth's first black Governor, J.J. Roberts. By the 1840s, the ACS was effectively bankrupt; Liberia had become a financial burden for it. In 1846, the ACS directed the Americo-Liberians to proclaim their independence. In 1847, Roberts proclaimed the colony the free and independent republic of Liberia. It then counted some 3000 settlers. A Constitution was drawn up along the lines of that of the United States.[citation needed]

Americo-Liberian rule (1847–1980)[edit]

Between 1847 and 1980, the state of Liberia was dominated by the small minority of black colonists and their offspring, known collectively as Americo-Liberians. The Americo-Liberian minority, many of whom were mulattos or Afro-Americans, were generally richer than the indigenous people of Liberia and exercised overwhelming political power.[7]

Politics[edit]

Map of Liberia c.1856

Politically, Liberia was dominated by two political parties. The franchise was deliberately limited to prevent indigenous Liberians from voting in elections.[8] The Liberian Party (later the Republican Party), was supported primarily by mulattos from poorer backgrounds, while the True Whig Party received much of its following from richer blacks.[9] From the first presidential election in 1847, the Liberian Party held political dominance and used its position of power to attempt to cripple its opposition.[8] In 1869, however, the Whigs won the presidential election under Edward James Roye. Although Roye was deposed after just two years and the Republicans returned to government, the Whigs regained power in 1878 and held power constantly afterwards.[8]

A series of rebellions among the indigenous Liberian population took place between the 1850s and 1920s. In 1854, a newly independent African-American state in the region, the Republic of Maryland, was forced by an insurgency of the Grebo and the Kru people to join Liberia. Liberia's expansion brought the colony into border disputes with French and British colonists in French Guinea and Sierra Leone, however the presence and protection of the United States Navy in West Africa, until 1916, prevented any military threat to Liberian territory or independence.[10]

Society[edit]

Americo-Liberian and indigenous segregation, 1847-1940[edit]

The social order in Liberia was dominated by a class of Americo-Liberians. Although of African origin, Americo-Liberians held American-style cultural and social values. Like many Americans and Europeans of the period, the Americo-Liberian held beliefs in the religious superiority of Protestant Christianity and the cultural superiority of European civilization over indigenous animism and culture.

Liberia Territory

The Americo-Liberians created communities and social infrastructure closely based on American society, maintaining their English-speaking, Americanized way of life, and building churches and houses resembling those of the southern United States. Although they never constituted more than five percent of the population of Liberia, they controlled key resources that allowed them to dominate the local native peoples: access to the ocean, modern technical skills, literacy and higher levels of education, and valuable relationships with many American institutions, including the American government.

Based on the system of racial segregation in America, the Americo-Liberians recreated a cultural and racial caste system with themselves at the top and indigenous Liberans at the bottom. They did believe, on the other hand, in a form of racial equality which meant that all had the potential of to become "civilized" through conversion to Christianity and education.

Social change, 1940-1980[edit]

During World War II thousands of indigenous Liberians came from the nation's interior to the coastal regions in search of jobs. The Liberian Government had long opposed this kind of migration, but was no longer able to restrain it. In the decades after 1945, the Liberian government received hundreds of millions of dollars of unrestricted foreign investment, which destabilized the Liberian economy. Government revenue rose enormously, but was being grossly embezzled by government officials. Growing economic disparities caused increased hostility between indigenous groups and Americo-Liberians.

The social tensions led President Tubman to enfranchise the indigenous Liberians either in 1951 or 1963 (accounts differ). Regardless of the date, this was enfranchisement in name only, since Tubman continued to repress political opposition, and to rig elections.

Economics[edit]

A one Liberian Dollar banknote from 1862

The suppression of the slave trade in West Africa by American and British navies, and constant economic competition from European colonies in Africa, created a long term economic problem in Liberia. The economy of Liberia was always based on the production of agricultural produce for export, however it faced increasing competition from other states. In particular, Liberia's important coffee industry was destroyed in the 1870s by the emergence of production in Brazil.[11] New technology available in Europe increasingly drove Liberian shipping companies out of business.[11] Although Roye's government attempted to procure funding for a railway in 1871, the plan never materialized and the first railway in the country was only built after 1945.[12] The national currency, the Liberian dollar, collapsed in 1907 and the country was later forced to adopt the United States Dollar. The Liberian government was constantly dependent on foreign loans at high rates of exchange, which endangered the country's independence.[12]

In 1926, Firestone, an American rubber company, started the worlds largest rubber plantation in Liberia. This industry created 25,000 jobs, and rubber quickly became the backbone of the Liberian economy; in the 1950s, rubber accounted for 40 percent of the national budget.

In the 1930s, Liberia signed concession agreements with Dutch, Danish, German and Polish investors.[13]

Between 1946 and 1960, exports of iron, timber and rubber rose strongly. In 1971, Liberia had the world’s largest rubber industry, and was the third largest exporter of iron ore. From 1948 Ship registrations became another large new source of state revenue. From 1962 until 1980, the U.S. donated $280 million in aid to Liberia, in exchange for which Liberia offered its land free of rent for U.S. government facilities. Throughout the 1970s the price of rubber in the world commodities market was depressed, putting pressure on Liberian state finances.

Liberia Timber and Plywood (LTP), in Sinoe, based out of Greenville, was the largest producer of timber in Liberia from January 1977 until the coup d'état in April of 1980. Brought in as the new president of Vanply (a subsidiary of Skelly Oil) in November 1975, Roland Paulson, a Harvard MBA with a masters in forestry, was tasked with fixing the failing timber operation in already in place, Vanply of Liberia. After voicing his serious concerns for the operation, Skelly decided to abandon Vanply of Liberia as a tax write-off. After the fact, Skelly gave Paulson and three other individuals Vanply of Liberia, which would become LTP, as a way to easily get out of Liberia and jettison Paulson as president of Vanply. By 1978, LTP overwhelmed its competition in Liberia and continued to do so until 1980.

International relations[edit]

After 1927, the League of Nations investigated accusations that the Liberian government forcibly recruited and sold indigenous people as contract labor or slaves.[12] In its 1930 report the League admonished the Liberian government for "systematically and for years fostering and encouraging a policy of gross intimidation and suppression", "[suppressing] the native, prevent him from realizing his powers and limitations and prevent him from asserting himself in any way whatever, for the benefit of the dominant and colonizing race, although originally the same African stock as themselves"[14] (see also Presidency Charles King 1920–1930). President King hastily resigned.

Liberian rulers also built up ties with the Soviet bloc and other powers, striving for an independent position in world politics, as far as their strong bonds with the Western world allowed them to.

Liberia Troops

Relations with the United States[edit]

The United States had a long history of intervening in Liberia's internal affairs, occasionally sending naval vessels to help suppress insurrections by indigenous tribes (in 1821, 1843, 1876, 1910, and 1915). The United States had lost interest in Liberia after 1876, and the country became closely tied to British capital. Starting again in 1909, the U.S. became heavily involved. By 1909, Liberia faced serious external threats to its sovereignty from the British over unpaid foreign loans and annexation of its borderlands.

In 1912 the U.S. arranged a 40-year international loan of $1.7 million, against which Liberia had to agree to four Western powers (America, Britain, France and Germany) controlling Liberian Government revenues until 1926. American administration of the border police also stabilized the frontier with Sierra Leone (part of the British Empire) and checked French ambitions to annex more Liberian territory. The American navy also established a coaling station in Liberia. When World War I started, Liberia declared war on Germany and expelled its resident German merchants, who constituted the country's largest investors and trading partners – Liberia suffered economically as a result.[15]

In 1926, the Liberian government gave a concession to the American rubber company Firestone to start the world’s largest rubber plantation at Harbel, Liberia. At the same time, Firestone arranged a $5 million private loan to Liberia. In the 1930s Liberia was again virtually bankrupt, and, after some American pressure, agreed to an assistance plan from the League of Nations. As part of this plan, two key officials of the League were placed in positions to ´advise´ the Liberian government.

World War I and II[edit]

American troops in Liberia during World War II

In 1942, Liberia signed a Defense Pact with the United States. Rubber was a strategically important commodity, and Liberia assured the U.S. and its allies of all the natural rubber they needed. Also, Liberia allowed the U.S. to use its territory as a bridgehead for transports of soldiers and war supplies, to construct military bases, airports, the Freeport of Monrovia, roads to the interior, etc.[16] The American military presence boosted the Liberian economy; thousands of laborers descended from the interior to the coastal region. The country’s huge iron ore deposits were made accessible to commerce.

The Defense Areas Agreement between the U.S. and Liberia entailed the US-financed construction of Roberts Field airport, the Freeport of Monrovia, and roads into the interior of Liberia. By the end of World War II, approximately 5,000 American troops had been stationed in Liberia.[17] Arguments substantiating this notion are that World War II infrastructure developments did not positively affect social and political struggles in Liberia and that, decades after the development from World War II, Americo-Liberians disproportionately controlled and benefited from Liberia’s growing economy and increase in foreign investment.[18]

Cold War[edit]

President Tolbert and U.S. President Jimmy Carter (in car, left) in Monrovia, 1978

After World War II, the U.S. pressured Liberia to resist the expansion of Soviet influence in Africa during the Cold War. Liberian president Tubman was agreeable to this policy. Between 1946 and 1960 Liberia received some $500 million in unrestricted foreign investment, mainly from the U.S. From 1962 to 1980, the U.S. donated $280 million in aid to Liberia. In the 1970s under president Tolbert, Liberia strove for a more non-aligned and independent posture, and established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and Eastern bloc countries. It also severed ties with Israel during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, but announced it supported American involvement in the Vietnam War.

End of Americo-Liberian rule[edit]

President William R. Tolbert, Jr. pursued a policy of suppressing opposition. Dissatisfaction over governmental plans to raise the price of rice in 1979 led to protest demonstrations in the streets of Monrovia. Tolbert ordered his troops to fire on the demonstrators, and seventy people were killed. Rioting ensued throughout Liberia, finally leading to a military coup d'état in April 1980.

Samuel Doe and the People’s Redemption Council (1980–1989)[edit]

Main article: Samuel Doe

After a bloody overthrow of the Americo-Liberian régime by indigenous Liberians in 1980, a ‘Redemption Council’ took control of Liberia. Internal unrest, opposition to the new military regime, and governmental repression steadily grew, until in 1989 Liberia sank into outright tribal and civil war.

Coup d’état; relations with U.S.[edit]

Samuel Kanyon Doe (1951–1990) was a member of the small ethnic group the Krahn, a master sergeant in the Liberian army, and trained by U.S. Army Special Forces[citation needed]. On April 12, 1980, Doe led a bloody coup d'état against president Tolbert, in which Tolbert and twenty-six of his supporters were murdered; ten days later thirteen of Tolbert’s Cabinet members were publicly executed. Thus ended 133 years of Americo-Liberian political domination over Liberia. Doe established a military regime called the People's Redemption Council (PRC). Many people welcomed Doe's takeover as a shift favouring the majority of the population that had been excluded from power. Immediately following the coup, the PRC tolerated a relatively free press.

Doe quickly established good relations with the United States, especially after U.S. President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981. Reagan increased financial aid for Liberia, from the $20 million it had been in 1979, to $75 million, and later $95 million per year. Liberia became again an important Cold War ally of the U.S.. Liberia served to protect important U.S. facilities and investments in Africa, and to counter the perceived spread of Soviet influence on the continent. Doe closed the Libyan mission in Monrovia and even severed diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. He agreed to a modification of the mutual defense pact with the U.S., which granted staging rights on 24-hour's notice at Liberia's sea- and airports for the U.S. Rapid Deployment Forces. Under Doe, Liberian ports were opened to American, Canadian, and European ships, which brought in considerable foreign investment from shipping firms and earned Liberia a reputation as a tax haven.

Fear of counter-coup; repression[edit]

Doe overcame seven coup attempts between 1981 and 1985. In August 1981 he had Thomas Weh Syen and four other PRC members arrested and executed for allegedly conspiring against him. Then Doe’s government declared an amnesty for all political prisoners and exiles, and released sixty political prisoners. Soon there were more internal rifts in the PRC. Doe became paranoid about the possibility of a counter-coup, and his government grew increasingly corrupt and repressive, banning political opposition, shutting down newspapers and jailing reporters. He began to systematically eliminate PRC members who challenged his authority, and to place people of his own ethnic Krahn background in key positions, which intensified popular anger. Meanwhile, the economy deteriorated precipitously. Popular support for Doe's government evaporated.

1985 presidential election[edit]

A draft constitution providing for a multiparty republic had been issued in 1983 and was approved by referendum in 1984. After the referendum, Doe staged a presidential election on October 15, 1985. Nine political parties sought to challenge Doe's National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL), but only three were allowed to take part. Prior to the election, more than fifty of Doe's opponents were murdered. Doe was ‘elected’ with 51% of the vote, but the election was heavily rigged. Foreign observers declared the elections fraudulent, and most of the elected opposition candidates refused to take their seats. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Chester Crocker testified before Congress that the election was imperfect but that at least it was a step toward democracy. He further justified his support for the election results with the claim that, in any case, all African elections were known to be rigged at that time.

Outbreak of Civil War[edit]

See also: First Liberian Civil War

In November 1985 Thomas Quiwonkpa, Doe's former second-in-command, with an estimated 500 to 600 people, failed in an attempt to seize power; all were killed. Doe was sworn in as President on January 6, 1986. Doe then initiated crackdowns against certain tribes, such as the Gio (or Dan) and Mano, in the north, where most of the coup plotters came from. This government's mistreatment of certain ethnic groups resulted in divisions and violence among indigenous peoples, who until then had coexisted relatively peacefully. In the late 1980s, as fiscal austerity took hold in the United States and the perceived threat of Communism declined with the waning of the Cold War, the U.S. became disenchanted with Doe's government and began cutting off critical foreign aid to Liberia. This, together with the popular opposition, made Doe’s position precarious.

Nonetheless, the Krahn tribe of president Doe attacked tribes in Nimba County in the north; some northerners fled to bordering Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). In the late 1980s, Charles Taylor assembled rebels from Gio and Mano tribes in Ivory Coast into a militia and invaded Nimba County in 1989. By 1990 a full-blown inter-tribal war was taking place.

First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996)[edit]

See also: First Liberian Civil War and Charles Taylor (Liberia)

In the late 1980s opposition from abroad to Doe’s regime led to economic collapse. Doe had already been repressing and crushing internal opposition for some time, when in November 1985 another coup attempt against him failed. Doe retaliated against tribes such as the Gio (or Dan) and Mano in the north, where most of the coup plotters had come from. Perhaps as a sequel to these governmental retaliations, perhaps as another circumscription of these same events: Doe’s Krahn tribe began attacking other tribes, particularly in Nimba County in the northeast of Liberia, bordering on Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and on Guinea. Some Liberian northerners fled brutal treatment from the Liberian army into the Ivory Coast.

Charles Taylor and the NPFL, 1980–89[edit]

Charles Taylor, born 1948, is son to a Gola mother and either an Americo-Liberian or an Afro-Trinidadian father. Taylor was a student at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.A., from 1972 to 1977, earning a degree in economics. After the 1980 coup d’état he served some time in Doe’s government until he was sacked in 1983 on accusation of embezzling government funds. He fled Liberia, was arrested in 1984 in Massachusetts on a Liberian warrant for extradition, and jailed in Massachusetts; escaped from jail in 1985, and probably fled to Libya. Some time later, while in the Ivory Coast, Taylor assembled a group of rebels into the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), mostly from the Gio and Mano tribes.

Monrovia City

War[edit]

December 1989, NPFL invaded Nimba County in Liberia. Thousands of Gio and Mano joined them, Liberians of other ethnic background as well. The Liberian army (AFL) counterattacked, and retaliated against the whole population of the region. Mid 1990, a war was raging between Krahn on one side, and Gio and Mano on the other. On both sides, thousands of civilians were massacred.

By the middle of 1990, Taylor controlled much of the country, and by June laid siege to Monrovia. In July, Yormie Johnson split off from NPFL and formed the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), based on the Gio tribe. Both NPFL and INPFL continued siege on Monrovia. Bloodshed was all over.

In August 1990, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), an organisation of West African states, created a military intervention force called Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) of 4,000 troops, to restore order. President Doe and Yormie Johnson (INPFL) agreed to this intervention, Taylor didn’t. On September 9, President Doe paid a visit to the barely established headquarters of ECOMOG in the Free Port of Monrovia, was at the ECOMOG headquarters attacked by INPFL, taken to the INPFL’s Caldwell base, tortured and killed.

November 1990, ECOWAS agreed with some principal Liberian players but without Charles Taylor, on an Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU) under President Dr. Amos Sawyer. Sawyer established his authority over most of Monrovia, with the help of a paramilitary police force, the 'Black Berets', under Brownie Samukai, while the rest of the country was in the hands of the various warring factions.

June 1991, former Liberian army fighters formed rebel group United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), entered western Liberia in September ’91, and gained territories from the NPFL.

American troops secure Freeport of Monrovia, 2003

In 1993, ECOWAS brokered a peace agreement in Cotonou, Benin. On 22 September 1993, the United Nations established the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) to support ECOMOG in implementing the Cotonou agreement. March 1994, the Interim Government of Amos Sawyer was succeeded by a Council of State of six members headed by David D. Kpormakpor. Renewed armed hostilities broke out in 1994 and held on. During the course of the year, ULIMO split into two militias: ULIMO-J, a Krahn faction led by Roosevelt Johnson, and ULIMO-K, a Mandigo-based faction under Alhaji G.V. Kromah. Faction leaders agreed to the Akosombo peace agreement in Ghana but with little consequence. October 1994, the UN reduced its number of UNOMIL observers to about 90 because of the lack of will of combatants to honour peace agreements. December 1994, factions and parties signed the Accra agreement, but fighting continued. August 1995, factions signed an agreement largely brokered by Jerry Rawlings, Ghanaian President; Charles Taylor agreed. September 1995, Kpormakpor’s Council of State is succeeded by one under civilian Wilton G. S. Sankawulo and with the factional heads Charles Taylor, Alhaji Kromah and George Boley in it. April 1996, followers of Taylor and Kromah assaulted the headquarters of Roosevelt Johnson in Monrovia, and the peace accord collapsed. In August 1996, a new ceasefire is reached in Abuja, Nigeria. September 3, 1996, Ruth Perry followed Sankawulo as chairwoman of the Council of State, with the same three militia leaders in it.

Second Liberian Civil War (1997–2003)[edit]

(See also: First Liberian Civil War, Charles Taylor and Second Liberian Civil War)

Elections 1997[edit]

Charles Taylor won the 1997 presidential elections with 75.33 percent of the vote, while the runner-up, Unity Party leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, received a mere 9.58 percent of the vote. Accordingly, Taylor's National Patriotic Party gained 21 of a possible 26 seats in the Senate, and 49 of a possible 64 seats in the House of Representatives.[19] The election was judged free and fair by some observers although it was charged that Taylor had employed widespread intimidation to achieve victory at the polls.[citation needed]

1997–1999[edit]

Bloodshed in Liberia did slow considerably, but it did not end. Violence kept flaring up. During his entire reign, Taylor had to fight insurgencies against his government. Suspicions were, Taylor continued to assist rebel forces in neighbouring countries, like Sierra Leone, trading weapons for diamonds.

1999–2003[edit]

Some ULIMO forces reformed themselves as the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), backed by the government of neighbouring Guinea. In 1999, they emerged in northern Liberia, in April 2000 they started fighting in Lofa County in northernmost Liberia. By the spring of 2001 they were posing a major threat to the Taylor government. Liberia was now engaged in a complex three-way conflict with Sierra Leone and the Guinea Republic.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council in March 2001 (Resolution 1343)[20] concluded that Liberia and Charles Taylor played roles in the civil war in Sierra Leone, and therefore:

banned all arms sales to, and diamonds sales from Liberia; and

banned high Liberian Government members to travel to UN-states.

By the beginning of 2002, Sierra Leone and Guinea were supporting the LURD, while Taylor was supporting opposition factions in both countries. By supporting Sierra Leonean rebels, Taylor also drew the enmity of the British and Americans.

Other elements of the former ULIMO-factions formed another new rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). Early 2003, MODEL emerged in the south of Liberia.

Women of Liberia[edit]

Main article: Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace

Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace

In 2002, the women in Liberia were tired of seeing their country torn apart. Organized by social worker Leymah Gbowee, women started gathering and praying in a fish market to protest the violence.[21] They organized the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), and issued a statement of intent: "In the past we were silent, but after being killed, raped, dehumanized, and infected with diseases, and watching our children and families destroyed, war has taught us that the future lies in saying NO to violence and YES to peace! We will not relent until peace prevails."[22]

Joined by Liberian Muslim Women's Organization,[23] Christian and Muslim women joined forces to create Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. They wore white, to symbolize peace. They staged silent nonviolence protests and forced a meeting with President Charles Taylor and extracted a promise from him to attend peace talks in Ghana.[24]

In 2003, a delegation of Liberian women went to Ghana to continue to apply pressure on the warring factions during the peace process. They staged a sit in outside of the Presidential Palace, blocking all the doors and windows and preventing anyone from leaving the peace talks without a resolution. Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace became a political force against violence and against their government.[25] Their actions brought about an agreement during the stalled peace talks. As a result, the women were able to achieve peace in Liberia after a 14-year civil war and later helped bring to power the country's first female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

UN timber embargo and arrest warrant against Taylor[edit]

The Buduburam refugee camp west of Accra, Ghana, home in 2005 to more than 40,000 refugees from Liberia

On March 7, 2003, the war tribunal Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) decided to summon Charles Taylor and charge him with war crimes and crimes against humanity, but they kept this decision and this charge secret until June that year.[26]

Due to concerns over the lack of social, humanitarian and development use of industry revenue by the Liberian government, the UN Security Council enacted a 10-month embargo on timber imports from Liberia on July 7, 2003 (passed in Resolution 1478). [27]

Culture of Liberia

By mid-2003, LURD controlled the northern third of the country and was threatening the capital, MODEL was active in the south, and Taylor's government controlled only a third of the country: Monrovia and central Liberia.

On June 4, 2003, ECOWAS organized peace talks in Accra, Ghana, among the Government of Liberia, civil society, and the rebel groups LURD and MODEL. On the opening ceremony, in Taylor’s presence, the SCSL revealed their charge against Taylor which they had kept secret since March, and also issued an international arrest warrant for Taylor.[26] The SCSL indicted Taylor for “bearing the greatest responsibility” for atrocities in Sierra Leone since November 1996. The Ghanaian authorities did not attempt to arrest Taylor, declaring they could not round up a president they themselves had invited as a guest for peace talks.[26] The same day, Taylor returned to Liberia.

Pressure of rebels, Presidents, and UN: Taylor resigns[edit]

June 2003, LURD began a siege of Monrovia. July 9, the Nigerian President offered Taylor safe exile in his country, if Taylor stayed out of Liberian politics.[28] Also in July, American President Bush stated twice that Taylor “must leave Liberia”. Taylor insisted that he would resign only if American peacekeeping troops were deployed to Liberia. August 1, 2003, the Security Council, (Resolution 1497) decided on a multinational force in Liberia, to be followed-on by a United Nations stabilization force. ECOWAS sent troops under the banner of 'ECOMIL' to Liberia.[29] These troops started to arrive in Liberia probably as of August 15. The U.S. provided logistical support.[30] President Taylor resigned, and flew into exile in Nigeria. Vice-President Moses Blah replaced Taylor as interim-President. A ECOWAS-ECOMIL force of 1000 Nigerian troops was airlifted into Liberia on August 15, to halt the occupation of Monrovia by rebel forces. Meanwhile, U.S. stationed a Marine Expeditionary Unit with 2300 Marines offshore Liberia.

Peace agreement and transitional government (2003–2005)[edit]

Gyude Bryant

On August 18, 2003, the Liberian Government, the rebels, political parties, and leaders from civil society signed the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement that laid the framework for a two-year National Transitional Government of Liberia. August 21, they selected businessman Charles Gyude Bryant as Chair of the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL), effective on October 14. These changes paved the way for the ECOWAS peacekeeping mission to expand into a 3,600-strong force, constituted by Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

On October 1, 2003, UNMIL took over the peacekeeping duties from ECOWAS. Some 3,500 West African troops were provisionally ‘re-hatted’ as United Nations peacekeepers. The UN Secretary-General commended the African Governments who have contributed to UNMIL, as well as the United States for its support to the regional force. October 14, 2003, Blah handed power to Gyude Bryant.

Fighting initially continued in parts of the country, and tensions between the factions did not immediately vanish. But fighters were being disarmed; in June 2004, a program to reintegrate the fighters into society began; the economy recovered somewhat in 2004; by year's end, the funds for the re-integration program proved inadequate; also by the end of 2004, more than 100,000 Liberian fighters had been disarmed, and the disarmament program was ended. In light of the progress made, President Bryant requested an end to the UN embargo on Liberian diamonds (since March 2001) and timber (since May 2003), but the Security Council postponed such a move until the peace was more secure. Because of a supposed ‘fundamentally broken system of governance that contributed to 23 years of conflict in Liberia’, and failures of the Transitional Government in curbing corruption, the Liberian government and the International Contact Group on Liberia signed onto the anti-corruption program GEMAP, starting September 2005.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected president (2005)[edit]

Main articles: Liberian elections, 2005 and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

The transitional government prepared for fair and peaceful democratic elections on October 11, 2005, with UNMIL troops safeguarding the peace. Twenty three candidates stood for the presidential election, with George Weah, internationally famous footballer, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and member of the Kru ethnic group, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former World Bank economist and finance minister, Harvard-trained economist and of mixed Americo-Liberian and indigenous descent. In the first round, no candidate took the required majority, Weah won this round with 28% of the vote. A run-off between the top two vote getters, Weah and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was necessary.

The second round of elections took place on November 8, 2005. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won this runoff decisively. Both the general election and runoff were marked by peace and order, with thousands of Liberians waiting patiently in the Liberian heat to cast their ballots. Sirleaf claimed victory of this round, winning 59 per cent of the vote. However, Weah alleged electoral fraud, despite international observers declaring the election to be free and fair. Although Weah was still threatening to take his claims to the Supreme Court if no evidence of fraud was found, Johnson-Sirleaf was declared winner on November 23, 2005, and took office on January 16, 2006.

Recent events (2006–present)[edit]

Allegations of labor rights abuses by Firestone[edit]

In November 2005, the International Labor Rights Fund filed an Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) case against Bridgestone, the parent company of Firestone, alleging “forced labor, the modern equivalent of slavery”, on the Firestone Plantation in Harbel.[31] In May 2006, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) released a report: “Human Rights in Liberia’s Rubber Plantations: Tapping into the Future” which detailed the results of its investigation into the conditions on the Firestone plantation in Liberia.[32]

Extradition and trial of Charles Taylor, arrest of Bryant[edit]

Under international pressure, President Sirleaf requested in March 2006 that Nigeria extradite Charles Taylor, who was then brought before an international tribunal in Sierra Leone to face charges of crimes against humanity, arising from events during the Sierra Leone civil war (his trial was later transferred to The Hague for security purposes). In June 2006, the United Nations ended its embargo on Liberian timber (effective since May 2003), but continued its diamond embargo (effective since March 2001) until an effective certificate of origin program was established, a decision that was reaffirmed in October 2006.

In March 2007, former Interim President Bryant was arrested and charged with having embezzled government funds while in office. In August 2007, the Supreme Court of Liberia allowed the criminal prosecution for this to proceed in the lower courts.[33] The court ruled that Bryant was not entitled to immunity as the head of state under the Constitution as he was not elected to the position and he was not acting in accordance with law when he allegedly stole USD $1.3 million in property from the government.[33][34] (Continoe)