Five years after end of Liberian war, reconstruction still a long way off
November 25, 2001
By TODD PITMAN
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) _ By itself, it's nothing remarkable: a crooked black traffic light, perched atop a short concrete stump at a downtown crossroads.
But this worn-out fixture boasts one quality all its cousins in Liberia lack: It works.
"It's the only traffic light in the whole republic," says taxi driver Olando Mohai. "During the war they destroyed everything, including the lights."
Five years after the end of this West African nation's 1989-96 civil war, they haven't repaired much either.
Scarred Liberia: One Traffic Light
Slavery's Legacy
In Liberia, complex past, difficult present overshadow debate on reparations for slavery
September 8, 2001
By TODD PITMAN
WHITE PLAINS, Liberia (AP) _ Sarah Andrews is clipping the legs off a half-dozen crawdads snatched from a river beside her house, filtering through memories of her American ancestry and her troubled country's remarkable past.
Andrews' forebears were among freed American slaves who returned in the mid-1800s to help found this West African nation, named Liberia for "liberty."
"My great-grandmother used to put me in her lap when I was a child and tell me how it took them six months to cross the deep blue sea," the frail 62-year-old recalls on her porch in White Plains, about 20 miles northwest of the capital, Monrovia.
Taylor in Exile
Former Liberian president's home in exile is more prison than palace
October 11, 2003
By TODD PITMAN
CALABAR, Nigeria (AP) _ Nigerian police armed with cold stares and automatic rifles stand guard outside former Liberian President Charles Taylor's new home in exile: A drab, onetime government office block refitted with air conditioners to ward off the tropical heat.
The cream-colored lodge, perched on a hillside overlooking the Calabar river and a lush mangrove forest, is more prison than palace for Taylor _ an indicted war-crimes suspect banned from speaking publicly and ordered to keep a low profile by his Nigerian hosts.
"How many times has he gone out? Maybe twice," Taylor's spokesman, Vaanii Paasawe, said over midday drinks in a dank hotel bar.
It's an extraordinary change of pace for a man who was once the most powerful and feared in man in Liberia _ until he was forced to step down as part of a peace deal to end his nation's civil war two months ago.
Preachers, Warlords, Senators
From warlord to preacher to lawmaker: Notorious Liberian reinvents himself
December 8, 2005
By TODD PITMAN
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) _ With an angry burst of AK-47 fire, he executed a pleading relief worker accused of profiteering. He chugged beer while his men infamously hacked off the ears of a captured president stripped to his underwear who begged unsuccessfully for life.
Once a powerful faction leader, more recently an evangelical preacher-in-exile, Prince Johnson helped drive Liberia into a catastrophic civil war. Today, he's a senator-elect promising to rebuild this West African nation _ and he is not the only lawmaker with a notorious past.
Iron Lady
'Iron Lady' poised for tough, risky job ahead in war-ravaged Liberia
November 12, 2005
By TODD PITMAN
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) _ Liberia's 19th president was overthrown and assassinated. His successor was executed by guerrillas who first cut off his ears. No. 21 won office after igniting a civil war but fled into exile amid a rebel assault on the capital.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf _ a strong-willed, erudite, 67-year-old former finance minister _ wants to be No. 23.