Doe Says Loyal Troops Crush Liberian Coup

A former military commander attempted Tuesday to topple the government of Liberian President-elect Samuel K. Doe, but loyal army troops recaptured several key radio stations, and Doe said he had crushed the attempted coup 13 hours after it began.

The attack on Doe’s government was led by Gen. Thomas Quiwonkpa, 30, former head of the Liberian army and one of 17 soldiers who helped Doe overthrow a civilian government in Liberia in 1980.

Quiwonkpa claimed in a statement read on a radio station in Monrovia, the capital, that Doe, 33, was “in hiding.” However, later reports from the official Liberian news agency said that Doe issued his own statement from the country’s executive mansion, contending that the rebel forces had failed in their coup attempt and that he remained in charge.

“Quiwonkpa is not man enough to enter the mansion,” Doe told reporters summoned to the executive mansion.

“I take this opportunity to inform the nation that the coup has failed,” Doe said later on a Monrovia radio station that for a time had been held by rebel forces. “I am still the commander in chief of the armed forces of Liberia and head of state.”

He called on the army, the police and “all Liberians” to stand firmly behind him, saying, “Do not permit these rebels, these dissident forces to intimidate you or influence you.” He also urged rebel holdouts to lay down their arms “because we are in complete control of the situation.”

At least 16 people--among them 15 rebels--were killed in the fierce battles, Doe said.

It was not known late Tuesday whether the fighting had ended. United Press International reported from Monrovia that heavy fighting still raged into the evening near the executive mansion and near Radio Elwa, one of the stations that had changed hands during the coup attempt.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman said, “It is not clear what forces are in control.”

The coup attempt began to unfold early Tuesday, less than two weeks after Doe was declared the winner in a presidential election marked by widespread evidence of fraud. Liberia’s borders were immediately sealed, its airport closed and a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed.

Quiwonkpa’s forces said they arrested several members of Doe’s government, including the defense minister, the armed forces chief of staff, the director of security, the information minister and Vice President-elect Harry Moniba.

Battle at Crossroads

A U.S. Embassy official, contacted by telephone from Nairobi, Kenya, reported that by Tuesday afternoon, a major gun battle was in progress at a crossroads about 10 miles outside of Monrovia. The official said Doe’s forces recaptured at least two radio stations--Christian Radio Elwa and the government-run Radio Liberia--that were commandeered early in the day by Quiwonkpa’s men.

The official said Doe appeared to have at least two military units still loyal to him. One was the executive mansion guard, made up of about 800 largely Krahn tribesmen from Doe’s home section of the country. The other was the 350-member 1st Battalion, which had been stationed at a base about 25 miles outside of Monrovia. That battalion is commanded by Col. Moses Wright, Doe’s cousin.

The embassy official said he believed the battle at the road junction was between Quiwonkpa’s forces and the 1st Battalion, which was attempting to reach the city to reinforce the troops loyal to Doe.

‘Dancing in the Streets’

Earlier in the day, it had appeared that the coup attempt was successful. At midmorning, another diplomatic official said that although sporadic shooting was still going on, large crowds were “dancing in the streets” and that most of the army had apparently gone over to Quiwonkpa’s side.

The jubilant crowd had disappeared by midafternoon, however, as those recaptured radio stations began to broadcast Doe’s claims of continued control and good health.

The statements read by Quiwonkpa--who until recently was living in Baltimore, where he went after fleeing Liberia in November, 1983--continued to run at regular intervals on at least one Monrovia radio station.

Quiwonkpa said: “The patriotic forces as of now have seized power. Our forces have completely surrounded the city. Samuel Doe is in hiding. There is no excuse for him.”

Quiwonkpa called on the military and police to join forces with him and added: “We decided to take the ultimate gamble in the tasks of national liberation. You shall have free and fair elections and a democratic society. You shall regain your self-respect and human dignity, which have been abused by Samuel Doe.”

Seemed Inevitable

Although the outcome of the battle appeared to be far from settled, some kind of coup attempt had seemed almost inevitable in Liberia. After five years of steady economic decline, burgeoning corruption, manic purges of once-close allies and an abysmal record on human rights, public support for Doe appeared to be at an all-time low.

It plummeted even further after the Oct. 15 presidential elections, in which there were clear indications that Doe had been defeated. However, his handpicked election commissioner threw out the legally constituted procedures for counting the ballots and turned the process over to a committee packed with members of Doe’s Krahn tribe and other supporters.

When the results were announced Oct. 29, it was claimed that Doe won the election with 51% of the votes.

Doe has been a major embarrassment for the United States, which had supported his regime since he came to power in the bloody coup of 1980. In that coup, President William R. Tolbert Jr. was assassinated and 13 of his ministers were publicly executed on a Monrovia beach.

Close Ties to U.S.

Liberia, founded in 1847 by freed American slaves, has always maintained close relations with the United States. About 3,000 Americans live in Liberia, mostly in Monrovia, where the Voice of America maintains powerful radio transmitters. A major U.S. government communications system, linking diplomatic missions in Africa, is also situated near Monrovia.

U.S. aid to Liberia increased from $15 million in 1980 to $86 million last year. From the beginning, the United States hoped to encourage Doe, who was 28 and barely literate when he came to power, to honor his early pledge to step down in favor of an elected civilian government.

But, by the end of 1982, it was apparent that Doe had become increasingly reluctant to retire, and relations between Doe and the United States came under growing strain.

Congress, concerned over Doe’s jailing of political opponents and his harassment of journalists, threatened to cut off American aid--which represents about a third of the Liberian budget--unless Doe held “free and fair” elections and returned the country to civilian rule.

Quiwonkpa, a sergeant in the the army until the 1980 coup, is a member of the Gio tribe from northeastern Liberia, while Doe and most of his closest associates are Krahn tribesmen from farther south in the country.

But the two men were close friends until shortly after Doe appointed Quiwonkpa to head the army. There, Quiwonkpa quickly gained a reputation as a moderating force on the soldiers, many of whom were running roughshod over the civilian population in the aftermath of the coup, commandeering cars and houses. Quiwonkpa was generally credited with restoring discipline to the army.

“We did not come to power to follow in the footsteps of those we overthrew,” Quiwonkpa said in 1981. “We came to rebuild our country along progressive lines. Power is not for us; it is for the people, because if they fail to support us, there will be no revolution.’

In 1980 and 1981, Quiwonkpa spent six months in the United States undergoing surgery and treatment for an eye disease, and he has been regarded as friendly to the United States. In Liberia, his supporters often referred to him as the “conscience of the revolution” because of his frequent statements that the army should return to its barracks and let civilians run the country.

In 1983, Doe accused Quiwonkpa of plotting a coup. Quiwonkpa, apparently with the help of friends and relatives from the rural areas near his home, managed to escape across the border into the Ivory Coast. From there, apparently, he went to the United States.