Liberia

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Country in West Africa, bounded north by Guinea, east by Côte d'Ivoire, south and southwest by the Atlantic Ocean, and northwest by Sierra Leone.

Government
Liberia has a multiparty presidential political system based on the USA model. The 1986 constitution, as amended, provides for a two-chamber national assembly comprising a 26-member senate and a 64-member house of representatives, both elected by universal suffrage for a six-year term. The president, who is head of state and government, is similarly elected for a six-year term.

History
The area now known as Liberia (which translates as ‘Land of the Free’) was bought by the American Colonization Society, a philanthropic organization active in the first half of the 19th century. The society's aim was to establish a settlement for liberated black slaves from the southern USA. The first settlers arrived in 1822, and Liberia was declared an independent republic in 1847. The new state suffered from financial difficulties, with bankruptcy of 1909 bringing reorganization by US army officers. For almost 160 years the country's leaders were descended from the black American settlers, but the 1980 coup put Africans in power.

Military coup
William Tubman was president from 1944 until his death in 1971 and was succeeded by Vice President William R Tolbert (1913–1980), who was re-elected in 1975. In 1980 Tolbert was assassinated in a coup led by Master Sgt Samuel Doe (1952–1990), who suspended the constitution, banned all political parties, and ruled through the People's Redemption Council (PRC). He proceeded to stamp out corruption in the public service, encountering considerable opposition and making enemies who were later to threaten his position.

New constitution
A new constitution was approved by the PRC in 1983 and by national referendum in 1984. Political parties were again permitted, provided they registered with a special electoral commission. In 1984 Doe founded the National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL) and announced his intention to stand for the presidency. By 1985 there were 11 political parties, but they complained about the difficulties of the registration process, and only three registered in time for the elections. Doe's party won clear majorities in both chambers, despite alleged electoral fraud, and he was pronounced president with 51% of the vote. In 1985 there was an unsuccessful attempt to unseat him. Doe alleged complicity by neighbouring Sierra Leone and dealt harshly with the coup leaders.

End of Doe regime
A gradual movement towards a pluralist political system, with a number of parties registering in opposition to the ruling NDPL, and growing economic problems threatened the stability of the Doe regime. In July 1990 rebel forces under Charles Taylor and a breakaway faction led by Prince Johnson laid siege to Doe in the presidential palace. Doe refused an offer of assistance by the USA to leave the country, and in September 1990 was captured and killed by rebel forces. A West African peacekeeping force was drafted into the republic and in November 1990 Taylor's political wing, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), set up an interim government, headed by Amos Sawyer.

Civil war
Despite the signing of a peace agreement in October 1991, fighting continued and in October 1992 Taylor's forces laid siege to the capital, Monrovia. A further peace accord, signed in August 1993 under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity (OAU; later African Union) and the United Nations, established an interim collective presidency, but this soon collapsed. A seven-month transitional government, formed in March 1994, was later disputed by rebel leaders. A further peace accord foundered in September 1994, but in August 1995 an agreement, brokered by Ghanaian president Jerry Rawlings, was accepted by Taylor and leaders of the other two main rebel factions. In September 1995 an interim collective executive, consisting of the three warlords and chaired by the academic Wilton Sankawulo, was established pending elections set for the following year. In April 1996 fighting flared up again between the forces of Taylor and Johnson, and the USA began evacuating foreigners. A peace plan was brokered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in August 1996 and an interim Council of State, headed by former Liberian senator Ruth Perry, was installed. It was estimated in 1996 that around 150,000 people had died in the civil war since 1990.

Taylor as president
In 1997 Charles Taylor was sworn in as the country's president. He won 75% of the vote in Liberia's first post-war election. The victory gave Taylor absolute powers in both houses of parliament. Taylor pledged to set up commissions aimed at guaranteeing human rights and promoting reconciliation, but his autocratic regime saw a loss of human rights and the targeting of opposition activists. There was also continuing fighting against rebels in the north and based in Guinea, and accusations that Liberia was supporting Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone.

In September 2000, Liberia launched a massive offensive against Liberian rebels in the north. Fighting worsened from January 2001, leaving 250,000 Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees in Guinea cut off from aid. In March 2001, the UN Security Council re-imposed an arms embargo on the country and promised to shut down its diamond exports unless it stopped buying diamonds from RUF rebels and expelled Sierra Leonean rebel leaders. In April 2001, Liberia sent 15,000 former soldiers to the border with Guinea where fighting with rebels had intensified. West African leaders called an emergency meeting in Nigeria to stop the regional conflict spreading, but Guinea and Sierra Leone refused to attend.

In January 2002, President Taylor declared a state of emergency after exchanges of gunfire in Monrovia raised fears that an armed rebellion by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) was gaining ground. The government embarked on a wide-ranging round-up of suspects.

New president
The civil war intensified in 2003, with fighting moving into Monrovia. With his government's power diminishing and faced with international and US pressure to step down, Taylor accepted an asylum offer from Nigeria and went into exile in August 2003. An interim government was set up, headed by Gyude Bryant.

United Nations and ECOMOG troops were stationed in the country to safeguard the peace. This enabled the political situation to be calmed down sufficiently for presidential elections to be freely and peacefully held in October–November 2005. The former finance minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf emerged victorious, defeating George Weah, the internationally famous footballer. She was inaugurated as president in January 2006, the first woman to be elected head of any African state.

A Harvard-trained economist, Johnson-Sirleaf, used her experience to encourage international investment to help rebuild Liberia's shattered economy. She also set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to judge crimes committed during the civil war. In March 2006, the Commission extradited Charles Taylor from Nigeria to face war crime charges.

Blue is the colour of the People's United Party. Sub umbra floreo, ‘I flourish in the shade’, is the national motto. Effective date: late 1980s. >>