President Samuel Doe claims that he has put down more than 30 coup attempts since he seized power, as Master Sergeant Doe, in an army uprising ten years ago. But the dictator's string of victories seems to have run out. A force of some 5,000 rebels last week captured the Roberts Field International Airport; occupied the Firestone rubber plantation, the country's largest private employer; and drew up on the outskirts of Monrovia, the capital. Refusing to resign or flee, Doe barricaded himself in the executive mansion with several hundred members of his Israeli-trained elite guard. He vowed that the insurgents would...
Africa The Would-Be President
The man trying to end Doe's reign of terror might not be much of an improvement for beleaguered Liberia
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