Moses Blah

Moses Zeh Blah (born April 18, 1947 in Toweh Town in Nimba County , † April 1, 2013 in Monrovia ) belonged to the West African people of the Gio and was the 23rd President of Liberia from August 11 to October 14, 2003 .

Life

Moses Blah attended the Tappeta Public School from 1967 , completed vocational training as a mechanic and used a few short visits to Hamburg for further training. From 1985 to 1989 graduated Blah together with Charles Taylor a paramilitary training in the Libyan camp Tajura , both men joined the common hatred of the former Liberian President Samuel Doe , who was also responsible for the murder of hundreds of people in an ethnically motivated massacres. In the Second Liberian Civil War , Moses Blah fought as a follower of Taylor against the Doe government and the renegade guerrilla force of the warlord Yormie Johnson . Thanks to his military career training in Libya, he was promoted to general in Taylor's "Liberation Army" - the " National Patriotic Front ".

After Taylor's victory, he was elected president in 1997, and Blah was appointed Liberian ambassador to Libya and Tunisia . As a politician, Blah, like Taylor, was a member of the National Patriotic Party . In July 2000, Blah, who was one of Taylor's closest confidants, was named Liberian Vice President. He succeeded Enoch Dogolea in this office , who is said to have been poisoned.

In June 2003, Blah was urged by the US to take power in Liberia while Taylor was in Ghana for peace talks , at which point Taylor's indictment was being prepared at the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal . After Taylor's return, Blah was demonstratively placed under house arrest for ten days , but then reinstated as Vice President. After Taylor's forced resignation in August 2003, Blah took over the constitutional office of interim president and was sworn in as Liberia's 23rd president. However, his tenure was only 64 days, then he was replaced by Gyude Bryant .

Blah was criticized by the rebel groups , such as the United Liberians for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), for his proximity to Taylor; they felt that he would just carry on with Taylor's policies. Blah made the first attempts at reconciliation during his presidency by calling the LURD rebels his "brothers".

Others

Blah was fluent in German , French and Arabic . He and his wife, Nettie, have many children and grandchildren. As Vice President, Blah was known for his reticence and modesty: he drove his own jeep instead of being escorted, and wore African clothing instead of the normal olive green military uniform. He was constantly irritating the bodyguards accompanying him.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Former Liberian President Moses Blah Dies
2. ^ Profiles: Moses Blah. In: News Services (BBC online portal). Retrieved December 22, 2010 . 
3. ↑ Manuel Bödiker: Taylor's successor. The devil's general . In: Der Spiegel from August 11, 2003 ( full text as digitized version)
4. ^ ^{A b} Peter Körner: Afrika-Jahrbuch . Ed .: Rolf Hofmeier, Andreas Mehler . tape 2003 . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-531-14386-7 , Liberia, p. 114-118 .