Liberia: a Promise in Doubt

A spate of arrests of opposition political leaders and restrictions on electoral activities in Liberia have placed in doubt the promise of President Samuel K. Doe to guide the West African nation to freely elected civilian rule.

The State Department, concerned about developments, held consultations earlier this month in Monrovia to emphasize the gravity with which the United States views the situation.

Parliamentary elections are still scheduled to begin Oct. 8, with presidential elections following in early November. But under present circumstances, with many leading political figures reported to be under arrest, the elections could prove to be useless as instruments of democracy.

Particular concern has been focused on the case of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a Western-educated former minister of finance with experience both at the World Bank and on the executive staff in Africa of Citibank. She had served the earlier government of William Tolbert and Doe’s government after the coup of 1980 as a technocrat--not as a political appointee, according to close associates. She returned to Liberia to form a new political party and seek the presidency herself, but found herself under arrest--a prisoner of the military regime, held in an army stockade under charges of sedition for assertedly making statements “detrimental to the peace and stability of Liberia.”

The U.S. government has pressed the Liberians for prompt due process for her and others apparently held as political prisoners. That is essential to the commitment of President Doe to democratic rule.