Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

2006 to Present

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, born 1939, won 59% of the votes in the November 2005 run-off election, beating Liberian football star George Weah.

Sirleaf is a Harvard-educated economist, a former World Bank economist and veteran politician. At age 67, she became Liberia's and Africa's first elected female head of state.

Charles Gyude Bryant October

2003 to 2006

Charles Gyude Bryant (born 1949) was the interim president of Liberia. 2003-2006

He is a businessman and seen as politically neutral.

Gyude Bryant was chosen to lead a transitional government at the all-party peace talks in August 2003. The talks followed 14 years of civil war and the exile of former president Charles Taylor. Bryant took over the leadership of Liberia on October 14th, 2003.

His title is Chairman of the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL), and he is appointed to serve a 2 year term. Gyude Bryant and the National Transitional Government has been given the following mandate:

• Disarm the combatants

• Rehabilitate them into their communities and with their families

• Bring back home all refugees and ensure that internally displaced persons go back to where they normally live.

• Ensure that Liberia becomes gun free, so that there will be no intimidation, extortion, and harassment through the barrel of the gun, so that come October 2005 people can vote their consciences and have a government of the people.

Charles Taylor

August 2 1997 - August 11, 2003

Charles Ghankay Taylor (born January 28, 1948) was resident of Liberia from 1997 to 2003. He was born in Arthington.

Taylor was appointed by President Samuel Doe to run the General Services Agency but was arrested in Massachusetts when Doe accused him of embezzeling almost $900,000.00. He remained in prison from May 1984 to September 1985 while awaiting extradition. He escaped prison, showed up in Ghana briefly then was thought to have gone to Libya.

In 1989 Taylor launched an armed uprising from the Ivory Coast, which led to the fall of Doe in 1990 and to the political fragmentation of the Liberia into violent factions. In mid-1990, a faction led by Prince Johnson split from Taylor's group and captured Monrovia for itself, depriving Taylor of outright victory.

The civil war turned into an ethnic conflict, with seven factions fighting for control of Liberia's resources (esp. iron ore, timber and rubber). 300,000 Liberians were killed and more than 1 million were forced from their homes.

After the official end of the civil war in 1996, Taylor became Liberia's president following a landslide poll victory in 1997, taking 75% of the vote.

ON June 4th, 2003, Taylor was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, by Sierra Leone-UN Court.

With the indictment of the Sierra Leone-UN Court, pressure from the US Bush administration and an offensive rebel attack on Monrovia by LURD and MODEL, Taylor on August 10, 2003, appeared on national television in Liberia to announce that he would resign the following day and hand power to the nation's vice president, Moses Blah.

Taylor harshly criticized the United States in his farewell address, saying that the Bush adminsitration's insistence that he leave the country was a foolish policy that would hurt Liberia.

On August 11, Taylor resigned, leaving Moses Blah as his successor until a transitional government was established on October 14. At the handover and Taylor exit, were Ghanaian President John Kufuor, South African President Thabo Mbeki, and Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, representing African regional councils. The U.S. brought three warships with 2,300 Marines into view of the coast. Taylor flew to Nigeria where the Nigerian government provided houses for him and his entourage

Taylor is still facing charges by the Sierra Leone-UN Court and is currently living in exile in Nigeria.

• Moses Blah August 11th 2003 - October 2003

• Ruth Perry September 3rd 1996- August 2nd, 1997 - Full name, Ruth Sando Perry; born July 16, 1939, in Grand Cape Mount, Liberia.

• Wilton Sankawulo September 2.1995-September 03, 1996

• David Kpormakor February 28, 1994-September 02, 1995

• Philip Banks November 13, 1993-February 28, 1994

• Bismarck Kuyon August 18, 1993-November 13, 1993

• Amos Sawyer November 23, 1990-August 08, 1993

President By Military Coup

Samuel Kanyon Doe (1951-1990)

April 12 1980 -  September 9 1990

In 1980, he staged a military coup, executing the president William R. Tolbert, Jr. and taking over the country.

During his time in rule, he banned newspapers and outlawed opposition political parties. He also entered into various deals with the United States government, and made Liberia a member of the Nonaligned Movement .

On October 29, 1985, amist voters intimidation and voting irregularities, Doe was announced the winner of Liberia's first multiparty election.

In the late 1980s, with the end of the Cold War and with accusation of human rights, rights abuses, mismanagement and "Rampant Corruption", charges against Doe, the US began cutting off critical foreign aid to Doe and Liberia.

Samuel Doe survived a failed coup attempt, staged by Thomas Quinwonkpa, an original member of Doe's People's Redemption Council (PRC), and one of the 17 enlisted men who staged the 1980 coup that made Samuel Doe the 19th President of Liberia.

Doe was captured and tortured to death on September 9 1990 by Prince Johnson leader of the I-NPFL one of the warring factions that fought in Liberia's first civil war (1989 and 1996).

(This photo of the captured Doe, is not meant to be disrespectful or offensive, it is posted here because it is a part of Liberia's history and a part of The TLC historical Archive.