Liberian national transitional government
The Liberia national transitional government was a provisional government, or rather the name given to three successive governments, in Liberia formed in the midst of the First Liberian Civil War. The LNTG was product of the July 25, 1993, Cotonou Peace Accord, whereby the Interim Government of National Unity disbanded. The respective LNTG-I, LNTG-II and LNTG-III governments were differentiated by being led by three different chairpersons. Initially supposed to last for six months to allow for disarmament of warring factions and preparations of national elections, the LNTG timeline lasted until mid-1997. Various of the warring factions had direct participation in the LNTG and civilian elements were gradually sidelined. Through participation in the provisional governance of LNTG the different warlords could gain access to state resources, even in situations when armed hostilities continued. The LNTG period ended with the 1997 Liberian general election whereby Charles Taylor was elected President of Liberia.
July 25, 1993: Cotonou Peace Accord
As of 1993 civil war raged in Liberia. Diplomatic efforts sought to find an end to hostilities, with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Trevor Gordon-Somers and Economic Community of West African States chairman and President of Benin Nicéphore Soglo, with support from United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Prudence Bushnell and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs George Moose, working to bring the warring parties to the negotiation table. Between July 10 and 17, 1993, peace talks were organized by ECOWAS in Geneva, supported by the United Nations, the United States and the Organization of African Unity. The Interim Government of National Unity, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia and ULIMO were invited to the Geneva talks. The Geneva peace talks were soon followed by negotiations in Cotonou, hosted by President Soglo of Benin.The Cotonou Peace Accord was signed on July 25, 1993, by IGNU, NPFL and ULIMO. President Amos Sawyer signed on behalf of IGNU, Alhaji G. V. Kromah signed on behalf of ULIMO and the NPFL signature was done by its vice president Enoch Dogolea. The agreement was co-signed by the government of Benin and other observers. In an emotional atmosphere, the leaders of the warring factions hugged each other at the end of the signing and the national anthem was sung.
The Cotonou Peace Accord assigned primary responsibility for implementation of the agreement to ECOMOG, with oversight from a UN observer missions. Notably NPFL leader Taylor refused to disarm his forces to the Nigerian-dominated ECOMOG, thus it was agreed that Egyptian, Tanzanian, Ugandan and Zimbabwean OAU troops would complement the ECOMOG forces as well as a UN observer mission. The agreement also provided amnesty for the warring factions and called for a cessation of hostilities by August 1, 1993. The Cotonou Peace Accord outlined encampment and disarmament of all factions. Buffer zones would be established along the borders of the country.
The Cotonous Peace Accord outlined that a Liberian National Transitional Government would be seated within 30 days of the signing of the agreement "concomitant with the commencement of the process of disarmament". Per the agreement the LNTG would consist of a 5-member Council of State, a 35-member Transitional Legislative Assembly, a 5-member Supreme Court and a 7-member Elections Commission. The agreement outlined that IGNU and the National Patriotic Reconstruction Assembly Government of the NPFL would be disbanded once the LNTG would be seated. Per the Cotonou Peace Accord the warring factions would name representatives to a five-member Council of State with a civilian chairperson and 2 vice chairs. In the Council of State 2 seats would be given to IGNU, 2 seats to ULIMO and 1 seat given to NPFL. National elections were scheduled for February 1994, in which Council of State members would be barred from running as candidates.
Post-Cotonou negotiations on the seating of LNTG
After the signing of the Cotonou Peace Accord, the actual installation of the new government suffered significant delays due to various squabbles over government posts. Eight months would pass before the transitional legislature would hold its first meeting. Effectively IGNU continued to operate whilst the disputes were taking place over LNTG posts. On August 16, 1993, the Liberian factions, holding a meeting in Cotonou, elected Bismarck Kuyon of IGNU as the chairman of the Council of State. Dorothy Musuleng-Cooper and Mohammed Sheriff were elected the vice chairs of the Council of State. Other Council of State members were David Kpomakpor and Thomas Ziah. The UNOMIL observer mission arrived in Liberia in September 1993.On October 20, 1993, NPFL removed Musuleng-Cooper from her post as vice chairperson of the Council of State, and was replaced by Isaac Musa.
On November 3, 1993, the three signatories met once again in Cotonou. The delegations held 3 days of talks there, after which the factions had agreed on the repartition of posts in the Council of State, Supreme Court, Electoral Commission, Legislature and 13 out of the 17 ministerial posts. But no agreement was reach on the ministerial portfolios for Foreign Affairs, Justice, Finance and Defense, and negotiations broke down. Frustrated by the lack of progress President Soglo ordered the delegations to leave Cotonou at once and issued a 10-day ultimatum to the Liberian factions to resolve the outstanding issues.
The IGNU President Sawyer opposed moving forward with installing the LNTG until disarmament of factions had begun. The Council of State chairman Kuyon would begin to distance himself from IGNU, moving towards a position of allowing installation of LNTG without the fulfillment of the preconditions of disarmament. On November 15, 1993, IGNU removed Kuyon from the Council of State, and replaced him on the council by Philip A. Z. Banks, III. The removal of Kuyon was met with protest from NPFL, ULIMO and sections within IGNU. Subsequently, a new INGU nominee, law professor David Kpomakpor, was named as the new Council of State chairman.
By early December 1993 talks resumed at Hotel Africa in Monrovia, where heated discussions took place. NPFL negotiators objected to the presence of ECOWAS, UN and OAU representatives at the talks, whilst the ECOMOG Chief of Staff Gen. Femi Williams called for disarmament of factions prior to the installation of LNTG. The United States government pressured the parties to reach an agreement, threatening to withdraw support to Liberia if an agreement could not be reached by February 15, 1994. Sawyer and his followers eventually caved in, agreeing to the LNTG to be seated March 7, 1994, without having reached any progress on disarmanent. The Liberian factions signed an agreement on the day of the U.S. deadline, February 15, 1994. The February 15, 1994, agreement signed between IGNU, NPFL and ULIMO came to be nick-named the 'Triple 7 Agreement' as it outlined three key processes to be achieved by March 7, 1994; installation of the LNTG, commencing disarmament of armed factions and deployment of ECOMOG and UNOMIL peacekeepers across the entire country. The agreement outlined that national elections would be held within 6 months of the seating of LNTG, i.e. September 7, 1994.
In late February 1994 Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Moose visited Liberia, exterting pressure on warring factions to cooperate with ECOMOG. The United States wanted the LNTG to the installed rapidly, and did not consider commencing disarmament as essential precondition for the seating the new transitional government. The Council of State consisting of Kpomakpor, Isaac Musa, Mohamed Sheriff, Philip A. Z. Banks, III and Dexter Tahyor was confirmed through chairman elections at the Riverview Conference on February 28, 1994.
In March 1994 factional dispute broke out in ULIMO following to the removal of Thomas Ziah from the Council of State. During a March 1, 1994, vote ULIMO representative Thomas Ziah refused to support the ULIMO candidate Mohamed Sheriff in the election for the post as Council of State chairman. Instead Kpomakpor was elected by 3 votes to 2. On March 3, 1994, Kromah declared Ziah removed from his role in the Council of State and ordered the disarmament of Krahn combattants within ULIMO ranks. ULIMO field commander Roosevelt Johnson rejected the removal of Ziah and on March 6, 1993, Johnson declared himself as the new head of ULIMO – thus ULIMO was split into the Mandingo-dominated ULIMO-Kromah and Krahn-dominated ULIMO-Johnson. ULIMO-J expelled Kromah from his headquarters in Tubmanburg and seized control over Bomi County, Grand Cape Mount County and the lower parts of Lofa County. Dexter Tahyor, a compromise candidate, took over Ziah's former seat in the Council of State.
March 7, 1994: Installation of LNTG
The LNTG Council of State was finally sworn in on March 7, 1994, with Kpomakpor as the Council of State chairman and Musa and Sheriff as vice chairs. Chief Justice J. Everett Bull officiated the oath-taking ceremony. The inauguration of LNTG was attended by President Soglo of Benin and foreign diplomats. Thousands of Monrovia residents took to the streets to celebrate the supposed end of the four-years civil war. After the installation of LNTG, ECOMOG forces began to deploy throughout the country – assisted by some 1,500 OAU troops from Tanzania and Uganda and 368 unarmed UN military observers. By this point IGNU and NPRAG ceased to function.In reality the LNTG only ran affairs in Monrovia itself whilst the NPFL controlled most of rest of the country. The government was completely dependent on international donors for its finances. The Kpomakpor-led Council of State did not function well, as the Cotonou Peace Accord prescribed that unanimity was necessary for decision-making in the council.
And whilst the LNTG Council of State had now been installed on March 7, 1994, the installations of the other government institutions remained illusive. The United States government stated that they would only recognize the LNTG government once it held effective control over the entire country.
Taylor didn't allow NPFL representatives to assume LNTG government positions whilst negotiations over sharing of key posts continued. He insisted that NPFL be given the Justice and Foreign Affairs ministerial portfolios.
But in March 1994 three NPFL ministerial nominees - the erstwhile NPRAG Defense Minister Tom Woewiyu, the NPRAG Justice Minister Laveli Supuwood and the NPRAG Internal Affairs Minister Sam Dokie – rebelled after they shifted from Gbarnga to Monrovia to take their cabinet posts in LNTG. In April 1994 they agreed to undergo the vetting process in front of the Transitional Legislative Assembly, in defiance of Taylor's orders. In response Taylor announced that the trio's LNTG ministerial nominations would be revoked, but the LNTG would argue that it would not interfere in the internal lives of the signing factions and thus allowed the trio to retain their ministerial posts. The trio formed the National Patriotic Front of Liberia – Central Revolutionary Council, and called for cooperation with ECOMOG and speedy disarmament. The NPFL-CRC, based in Monrovia, declared Taylor removed from the NPFL leadership. The NPFL split and Taylor's isolation from the LNTG ministerial cabinet enabled his opponents to gain access to financial revenue from the control of the ship registry.