Liberia Reports It’s Breaking Diplomatic Ties With Soviets

The Liberian government said Thursday it is breaking diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. It acted the day after 14 students were arrested for allegedly providing military secrets to the Soviet Embassy.

The Foreign Ministry said Liberia’s diplomats are being recalled from Moscow and that Soviet diplomats will be given 72 hours to leave this West African nation.

A ministry statement said the students were arrested Wednesday as they left the embassy. They were “involved in passing on to the Soviets classified information on various military installations in Liberia and the defense capabilities of the military,” it said.

Security forces retrieved some of the documents from the students, the statement said. It did not identify the students or link them with any organization.

The ministry statement called the alleged Soviet espionage “a serious breach of the principles governing international relations” and “gross interference in the internal affairs of Liberia which cannot be condoned.”

Liberia, a republic founded in the 19th Century by freed American slaves returning to Africa, has traditionally been closely aligned with the United States.

It is a major source of rubber for the U.S. tire industry and uses the U.S. dollar as its currency. It had been ruled by descendants of the freed slaves until a coup in 1980.

A group of indigenous Liberians, led by Samuel K. Doe, carried out the coup and executed leaders of the former government. Doe, now commander in chief of the army and head of state, has pledged to restore democracy with a presidential election later this year.