Samuel K. Doe

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Samuel K. Doe (1982)
Doe and Secretary of Defense Weinberger , 1982 in Washington DC

Samuel Kanyon Doe (born May 6, 1951 in Tuzon , † September 9, 1990 in Monrovia ) was Liberia's head of state from 1980 and 21st President from 1986 to 1990 .

Life

Early years

Doe was born in 1951 in Tuzon, the son of a soldier. He came from the Krahn ethnic group . He joined the army at the age of 18 and served up to Master Sergeant until 1979. He also attended evening school.

Domination

On April 12, 1980, he led a group of officers who stormed the presidential palace and President William R. Tolbert, Jr. killed. Then the seventeen-member "People's Redemption Council" with Doe as chairman was founded, which took over the rule of the country. Public executions followed , first of members of the American-Liberian elite, then also of alleged or actual political opponents. Doe ran through Monrovia government ministers naked on the beach and shoot .

The system of government was only apparently democratic; in fact, Doe established a military dictatorship under the National Democratic Party of Liberia . Liberia became a tax haven for North Americans and Europeans. After Ronald Reagan's election victory in the USA in 1981, the financial aid from the USA for the Doe administration was increased significantly. From the mid-1980s, however, the flow of money decreased, and at the same time the country's financial system collapsed again due to wrong decisions by the government.

Doe had a presidential election scheduled for 1985, and his party officially won it by an absolute majority. Independent election observers judged the election to be rigged. Protests were put down. From the late 1980s, Doe lost financial support from the US and found himself under increasing pressure because of his cruel regime and corruption.

End of rule and murder

In late 1989 began Charles Taylor from the Ivory Coast in a war against Doe rule to guide. In mid-1990 most of the country was controlled by rebels. On September 9, 1990, Doe was caught and tortured to death by a group led by Yormie Johnson . Among other things, Johnson had both ears cut off and then bleed to death. Videotapes of Does's torture and execution soon circulated across West Africa.

Web links

Commons : Samuel Doe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Michael Clough: Free at last ?: US policy toward Africa and the end of the Cold War . Council on Foreign Relations Press, New York 1992, ISBN 0-87609-104-4 , The United States and Doe, pp. 89-95 . ( Full text as digitized version)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robin White: My Verbal Sparring with Charles Taylor , BBC News. April 26, 2012. Retrieved April 26, 2012. 
  2. ^ Emil Maria Claassen, Pascal Salin: The Impact of stabilization and structural adjustment policies on the rural sector . Rome 1991, ISBN 92-5102894-X , Liberia's dual agricultural economy and the urgend need for currency reform, p. 133-147 . ( Full text as digitized version)
  3. ^ Elections in Liberia (1985). In: African Elections Database. Retrieved December 29, 2010 .
  4. ↑ http://www.der-ueberblick.de/ueberblick.archiv/one.ueberblick.article/ueberblick829e.html?entry=page.200303.055
personal data
SURNAME Doe, Samuel K.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Doe, Samuel Kanyon (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Liberian politician, president (1980–1990)
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Tuzon , Grand Gedeh County , Liberia
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1990
Place of death Monrovia