A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

1979
Liberia enters into a treaty of mutual defense with Guinea.
April 14, 1979 – President Tolbert’s proposal to increase the price of rice provokes the Rice Riots.
Later, Tolbert grants general amnesty to those charged with instigating the events of April 14.
July 1970- Liberia hosts the 16 th annual Organization of African Unity summit meeting.
1980
April 12, 1980 – Master Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe launches a bloody coup with a group of other
noncommissioned officers, executing President Tolbert in the Executive Mansion.
April 22, 1980 – A firing squad publicly strips and executes 13 government officials at a beachside
military base in Monrovia. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, along with other members of the educated elite,
flee the country.
1985
October 15, 1985 – Amid claims that the voting was rigged, the Doe government holds and wins
multi-party general elections.
November 12, 1985 – General Thomas Quiwonkpa stages a failed coup, invading Monrovia and
securing the national radio station before being overtaken by Doe’s military reinforcements. Within
days, Quiwonkpa is executed, his corpse is mutiliated by Doe’s soldiers, and his body is paraded
around Monrovia amid celebrations by loyalist soldiers.
January 6, 1986 – Samuel Doe becomes the president of the Second Republic, inaugurating a new
constitution.
December 24, 1989 – Charles Taylor, leading the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL),
instigates a civil war upon launching an invasion from Cote d’Ivoire into Liberia’s northeastern
Nimba County, supported by guerrilla fighters trained in Libya.
1990
May 30, 1990 – The Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOWAS)
heads of state convene in Banjul, Gambia on the Liberian civil war and institute a five-member
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Appendix D