Word: liberian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...year existence, the Republic of Liberia had never experienced a coup d'état, a remarkable record given the turbulent politics of West Africa. Last weekend a group of noncommissioned officers and Liberian National Guardsmen conducted a bold dawn raid on the palatial executive mansion in the capital city of Monrovia. Their target: William R. Tolbert Jr., 66, Liberia's President and the current chairman of the Organization of African Unity. According to one account, Tolbert was shot in the face and killed. His wife Victoria and members of the Cabinet, the judiciary and the legislature were seized...
Radio broadcasts from Monrovia identified the coup leader as Samuel Doe, 28, an obscure master sergeant in the Liberian army who called his new government the People's Redemption Council of the Armed Forces of Liberia. Doe declared that he had overthrown the Tolbert regime because of its "rampant corruption and continuous failure" to solve Liberia's problems. Mindful that Liberia has always been one of America's closest African allies, Doe asked for a meeting with U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Julius Walker. He told Walker that he was aware of America's "historic...
Long simmering anger against the Tolbert regime erupted a year ago when the government proposed a hike in the price of rice from $22 to $30 for a 100-lb. bag. (The average Liberian earns $80 a month.) In Monrovia, 2,000 people gathered in protest. A student-led group of some of the demonstrators headed toward Tolbert's executive mansion. The President overreacted, ordering police and soldiers to shoot into the crowd. Forty people were killed and hundreds injured, which set off riots and looting...
...water pollution, Captain Georgoulis claimed that his ship's log had gone down with the ship. Local police, in piecing together the details, however, learned there was a 30-hour gap from the time of the first "mysterious explosions" to the ship's final descent. Then a Liberian official charged that the 42-year-old captain was not even a certified master: he was carrying the forged license of a Pakistani engineer. One year earlier, moreover, Georgoulis was allegedly involved in the mysterious sinking of a freighter carrying sugar for Saudi Arabia that was blown...
...welter of recriminations, sadly enough, a crucial OAU report warning of "impending disaster" for Africa's deteriorating economies was given short shrift. The perfunctory debate over the study, which recommended the creation of a Common Market for the continent, tended to justify a sad remark by Liberian President William Tolbert. Most issues, concluded the OAU host and conference chairman, had been "decisively unaddressed...