Ex-Warlord Sworn In as President

Former warlord Charles Taylor was sworn in as president, a position he sought for seven years on the battlefield and finally achieved at the ballot box. Two weeks after winning 75% of the vote in the nation’s first postwar election, Taylor promised to immediately set up commissions aimed at guaranteeing human rights and promoting reconciliation. In 1989, he launched a civil war that devastated the West African nation. But Liberians looking for strong leadership after the conflict voted massively for him in the presidential election July 19.