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Charles Taylor (Liberian Politician)
Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor (born 28 January 1948) is a Liberian former politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 22nd president of Liberia from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003 as a result of the Second Liberian Civil War and growing international pressure. Born in Arthington, Montserrado County, Liberia, Taylor earned a degree at Bentley College in the United States before returning to Liberia to work in the government of Samuel Doe. After being removed for embezzlement and imprisoned by President Doe, Taylor escaped prison in 1989. He eventually arrived in Libya, where he was trained as a guerrilla fighter. He returned to Liberia in 1989 as the head of a Libyan-backed rebel group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, to overthrow the Doe government, initiating the First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996). Following Doe's execution, Taylor gained control of a large portion of the country and became one of the most prominent warlords ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of Liberia
The president of the Republic of Liberia is the head of state and government of Liberia. The president serves as the leader of the executive branch and as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Liberia. Prior to the independence of Liberia in 1847, executive power in the Commonwealth of Liberia was held by the governor of Liberia, who was appointed by the American Colonization Society. The 1847 Constitution transferred the executive powers of the governorship to the presidency, which was largely modeled on the presidency of the United States. Between 1847 and 1980, the presidency was exclusively held by Americo-Liberians, the original American settlers of Liberia and their descendants. The original two-party system, with the Republican Party and the True Whig Party, ended in 1878, when the election of Anthony W. Gardiner marked the beginning of 102 years of one-party rule by the True Whigs. Following a ''coup d'état'' by disgruntled army NCOs and soldiers led by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bentley College
Bentley University is a private university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1917 as a school of accounting and finance in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. Bentley has one undergraduate school which offers 17 business majors and 14 arts and sciences majors, as well as 39 minors. Its graduate school offers five master's degrees, an MBA with eight disciplines, and three PhD programs. While Bentley's main campus hosts almost all of its services, the university also has another campus one mile north. The North Campus hosts four residential buildings. History Bentley University was founded in 1917 as the Bentley School of Accounting and Finance by Harry C. Bentley, after leaving his position as professor at the College of Business Administration at Boston University in late 1916. Thirty students attended Bentley's first class on February 26, 1917 in a room secured by Bentley at 30 Huntington Avenue. For the 1920-1921 school year, Bentley leased and had sever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1998 Monrovia Clashes
The Monrovia clashes in 1998 were the result of Liberian President Charles Taylor's attempts to violently eliminate one of his last domestic political opponents, Roosevelt Johnson, a former warlord. At the time, Johnson still lived with a small loyal militia in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. After some minor armed altercations, almost all of Johnson's followers were finally killed by Taylor's security forces during a major firefight in September 1998, though Johnson himself managed to flee into the United States embassy. After one last attempt by Taylor's paramilitaries to kill him there, causing a major diplomatic incident, Johnson was evacuated to Ghana. Although the clashes were effectively a political victory for Taylor as he had removed Johnson from Liberia, the mass killings of ethnic Krahn after the clashes contributed to the outbreak of the Second Liberian Civil War which saw the president being toppled. Background After being elected in 1997, President Charles Tay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roosevelt Johnson
David Roosevelt Johnson (died October 23, 2004) was a Liberian military officer and warlord who led the ULIMO rebel group during the First Liberian Civil War. He was not a member of the Krahn ethnic group that he fought for; however, his wife was of that ethnic group. Biography A former teacher, Johnson joined the rebel group United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) soon after the war began. ULIMO split into two factions in 1994: United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy-Kromah faction (ULIMO-K) led by Alhaji G.V. Kromah and the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy-Johnson faction (ULIMO-J), which was led by Johnson. Johnson had 6 sons in Liberia. Jotham, his eldest, would take care of the rest of his brothers while Johnson had been on rebel missions. Nigel, Justin, Rob, Hye and Igor had lived without knowing much about their father, as Johnson had hardly been home to care for them. Fighters loyal to Johnson triggered the first m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Revolutionary United Front
The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was a rebel group that fought a failed eleven-year war in Sierra Leone, beginning in 1991 and ending in 2002. It later transformed into a political party, which still exists today. The three most senior surviving leaders, Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon, and Augustine Gbao, were convicted in February 2009 of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Creation The RUF initially coalesced as a group of Sierra Leoneans who led elements of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia across the Liberian border. Their goal was to replicate Charles Taylor's earlier success in toppling the Liberian government. The RUF was created by Foday Sankoh, of Temne background, and some allies, Abu Kanu, Rashid Mansaray, with substantial assistance from Charles Taylor of Liberia.David M. Crane , Special Court for Sierra Leone (February 5, 2004) Initially, the RUF was popular with Sierra Leoneans, many of whom resented a Freetown elite seen as corrupt and looked fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crimes Against Humanity
Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as foreign nationals.Margaret M. DeGuzma"Crimes Against Humanity"''Research Handbook on International Criminal Law'', Bartram S. Brown, ed., Edgar Elgar Publishing, 2011. Together with war crimes, genocide, and the crime of aggression, crimes against humanity are one of the core crimes of international criminal law and, like other crimes against international law, have no temporal or jurisdictional limitations on prosecution (where universal jurisdiction is recognized). The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place during the Nuremberg trials against defeated leaders of Nazi Germany. Crimes against humanity have been prosecuted by other international courts (such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugosl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War Crime
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostages, unnecessarily destroying civilian property, deception by perfidy, wartime sexual violence, pillaging, and for any individual that is part of the command structure who orders any attempt to committing mass killings (including genocide or ethnic cleansing), the granting of no quarter despite surrender, the conscription of children in the military, and flouting the legal Indiscriminate attack, distinctions of Proportionality (law), proportionality and military necessity. The formal concept of war crimes emerged from the codification of the customary international law that applied to warfare between sovereign states, such as the Lieber Code (1863) of the Union Army in the American Civil War and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1997 Liberian General Election
General elections were held in Liberia on 19 July 1997 as part of the 1996 peace agreement ending the First Liberian Civil War. The presidency, as well as all seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate were up for election. Voter turnout was around 89%. Former rebel leader Charles Taylor and his National Patriotic Party (NPP) won the election with 75.3% of the vote, giving it about three-quarters of the legislative seats according to the proportional representation system. Taylor was inaugurated as president on 2 August 1997. Taylor campaigned on, among other slogans, "He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him." The elections were overseen by the United Nations' peacekeeping mission, United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia, along with a contingent from the Economic Community of West African States. Taylor's closest competitor, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, collected only 10 percent of the vote. Background During 1984 a new draft constitution was approved i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ULIMO
The United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) was a pro-government militia that participated in the First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996). ULIMO was formed in May 1991 by Krahn and Mandingo refugees and soldiers who had fought in the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) fighters.Damrosch, Lori Fisler. ''Enforcing Restraint: Collective Intervention in Internal Conflicts'', 1993. Page 170. It was led by Alhadji Kromah and Raleigh Seekie, a deputy Minister of Finance in the Doe government. After fighting alongside the Sierra Leonean army against the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), ULIMO forces entered western Liberia in September 1991. The group scored significant gains in areas held by another rebel group – the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), notably around the diamond mining areas of Lofa and Bomi counties. From its outset, ULIMO was beset with internal divisions and the group effectively broke into two separate militias in 1994: ULIMO-J, an ethnic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warlord
Warlords are individuals who exercise military, Economy, economic, and Politics, political control over a region, often one State collapse, without a strong central or national government, typically through informal control over Militia, local armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of history, albeit in a variety of different capacities within the political, economic, and social structure of State (polity), states or Anarchy, ungoverned territories. The term is often applied in the context of China around the end of the Qing dynasty, especially during the Warlord Era. The term may also be used for a General officer, supreme military leader. Historical origins and etymology The first appearance of the word "warlord" dates to 1856, when used by American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson in a highly critical essay on the aristocracy in England, "Piracy and war gave place to trade, politics and letters; the war-lords'' to the law-lord; the privilege was kept, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Patriotic Front Of Liberia
The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) was a Liberian rebel group that initiated and participated in the First Liberian Civil War from 24 December 1989 – 2 August 1997. The NPFL emerged out of rising ethnic tensions and civil unrest due to the Liberian government that was characterized by totalitarianism, corruption, and favoritism towards ethnic Krahns. The NPFL invaded Liberia through Ivory Coast’s border with Nimba County in Liberia under the direction of Charles Taylor, a former Liberian politician and guerrilla leader who served as the 22nd president of Liberia from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003. The NPLF was responsible for a vast array of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including mass murder, rape, sexual slavery, conscription of child soldiers, torture, and political assassinations. Over 60,000 human rights violations committed by the NPFL were formally recorded by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Leaders ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guerrilla Fighter
Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrorism, Raid (military), raids, petty warfare or hit-and-run tactics in a rebellion, in a violence, violent conflict, in a war or in a civil war to fight against regular military, police or rival insurgency, insurgent forces. Although the term "guerrilla warfare" was coined in the context of the Peninsular War in the 19th century, the tactical methods of guerrilla warfare have long been in use. In the 6th century Anno Domini, BC, Sun Tzu proposed the use of guerrilla-style tactics in ''The Art of War''. The 3rd century BC Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus is also credited with inventing many of the tactics of guerrilla warfare through what is today called the Fabian strategy, and in Chin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
