Liberia Rebels Stage Bloody Coup Effort : Ex-Military Chief Claims That He Has Seized Power

Rebel soldiers led by a former military commander today battled troops loyal to President Samuel Doe in a bloody coup attempt in this West African nation founded by freed U.S. slaves in 1847.

Former military commander Gen. Thomas Quiwonkpa claimed that he had seized power in a predawn coup, but Doe countered that loyal forces had crushed the revolt and killed 15 rebels. Doe said one loyal soldier was killed in the fighting.

A Western diplomat in the capital said heavy fighting raged into the evening near Doe’s Executive Mansion and near Liberia’s Radio Elwa station. A British Embassy official said there is little evidence to support Doe’s claim the uprising had been crushed.

In a broadcast on Radio Elwa at 7:05 p.m., Doe said: “I call on all citizens, foreigners and foreign missions here in our capital not to harbor any of these dissidents. For to do so would invite the full force of the law.

‘May God . . . Save the Nation’

“All borders, including Roberts Field (international airport), are to remain closed. May God almighty bless you and save the nation,” Doe said in his short address.

U.S. Embassy officials said many Liberians were dancing in the streets in celebration of the coup bid against Doe, who has become increasingly unpopular as a result of his harsh policies and elections last month that Doe won with 51% of the vote but critics say were rigged.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Anita Stockman confirmed that an attempt to topple Doe is “in progress” but she said reports from the U.S. Embassy are “very sketchy.” She said the reports indicate that all U.S. citizens are safe.

First word of the coup bid came before dawn when troops supporting Quiwonkpa seized and held the radio station and appealed for support. But hours later an announcer said the station had been “seized” again and he urged people to “combat Gen. Quiwonkpa.”

Loyal Troops Move In

Doe, supported by his personal mansion guard and the 1st Army Battalion led by his cousin, held out at the Executive Mansion and told reporters that he had foiled the coup.

Loyal troops were centered in the town of Shefli, 17 miles from Monrovia, and when they heard news of the coup, they marched on Monrovia and engaged the rebels in combat on the airport road, Western diplomats said.

In a statement broadcast early in the day on Radio Elwa, Quiwonkpa, who was part of a bloody military coup in 1980 that first brought Doe to power, said the rebel forces “as of now have seized power.”

“Our forces have completely surrounded the city,” said the general believed to have led an unsuccessful coup attempt against Doe in 1983. “Samuel Doe is in hiding.”

Rebels ‘Badly Beaten’

But Doe, speaking to reporters at the Executive Mansion, said rebels backing Quiwonkpa “were badly defeated by government troops” after they crossed into Liberia from neighboring Ivory Coast.

Quiwonkpa said that security forces are sealing Liberia’s borders and imposing a dusk-to-dawn curfew and that Monrovia’s airport would be “closed until further notice,” state-run radio reported.

Rebels said arrested members of Doe’s government included the defense minister, the chief of staff, the director of joint security, the information minister and Vice President-elect Harry Moniba.

Quiwonkpa, commander of the Liberian military since April, 1980, was named secretary general of the ruling People’s Redemption Council in October, 1983. He refused the post and was stripped of authority in the armed forces.

Doe was an army master sergeant on April 12, 1980, when he and a group of fellow sergeants killed President William Tolbert and seized power in a coup, shooting to death former government officials in a televised spectacle on a beach.