Liberia’s former president William Tolbert has been symbolically reburied, 45 years after he was murdered during a coup.
Thirteen members of Tolbert’s cabinet were executed following sham trials and their bodies believed to have been dumped in a mass grave.
On Tuesday, at a ceremony attended by Liberia’s incumbent president, Joseph Boakai, the 14 men were given a state funeral. A grave dug during the ceremony was left empty in case any of their remains should be found.
Tolbert’s overthrow marked the end of an era of political control by Americo-Liberians, the descendants of freed black slaves who migrated to the West African nation in the 19th century.
The man who overthrew Tolbert, Samuel Doe, was Liberia’s first indigenous leader. Just ten years later, he was also killed by rebels. He was reburied in his hometown last week.
Civil wars
Following the coup on April 12, 1980, Liberia entered a period of political unrest, including two civil wars that left a quarter of a million people dead.
A peace agreement in 2003 finally led to democratic elections in 2005 and the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president. The first elected female head of state in Africa, Sirleaf created a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the causes of the civil wars and ensure restitution for victims.
