ABSTRACT
Beginning in the 1970's and continuing into the first decade of the twenty-first century, the nation of Liberia was plunged into a series of alternating civil wars and dictatorships. Hundreds of thousands of Liberians were killed and many thousands of others tortured and the festering violence and ethnic animosity linger on to this day. Under the regime of Samuel K. Doe, who seized power and became president via a military coup staged in 1980, ethnic tensions reached boiling-point, as members of the Mano and Gio ethnic groups were targeted by Doe and his administration. Atrocities reported from this period include extrajudicial executions, unlawful killings, illegal or prolonged detentions without trial, and the torture of opposition leaders. 1 A rebel insurgency, ignited by Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) and supported by seven different warring factions, managed to topple Doe in December of 1990.
