On Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Decoration Day was observed, marking nearly 35 years since the violent killing of President Samuel Kanyan Doe, along with several key staff members and Armed Forces of Liberia personnel, in 1990.
In commemoration of the day, a group of kinsmen of the late Liberian leader, led by Jacob Debee, the Representative of Grand Gedeh County Electoral District #3, gathered at the Freeport of Monrovia to pay their respects.
According to Rep. Debee, the group plans to organize a reconciliatory meeting that will invite key development partners and representatives of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Notably, the ECOWAS Force Commander at that time played a role in the deception that led to the President attending what was supposed to be a peace meeting.
Dressed in black, Rep. Debee and the group assembled at the main gate of the Freeport of Monrovia, the very location where the former Liberian leader and others were killed, to lay wreaths and offer prayers. “Our President, along with some leaders, our brothers, and members of our national army, were murdered here in 1990 after they had come to attend a meeting called by the peacekeepers. We are here to symbolically lay this wreath in honor of our deceased President and others who lost their lives on that tragic day,” stated Rep. Debee.
“Next year, we will hold a larger event where we will invite ECOWAS and host a program in memory of our people,” he asserted. The first Liberian civil war began on December 9, 1989, when the anti-Doe National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), led by Charles Taylor, invaded Liberia from the Ivory Coast with the aim of overthrowing him. President Doe was ultimately captured and executed by the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), a splinter faction of the NPFL, led by Commanding General and current Nimba County Senator Prince Yormie Johnson, on September 9, 1990.
During the mid-1990s, the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), a multilateral armed force established by ECOWAS, intervened in Liberia to promote peace and ensure security. However, one party was misled in the process, as President Doe was reportedly convinced by the peacekeepers to go to the port, where he was murdered.
While Rep. Debee seeks true reconciliation, he also demands that ECOWAS account for its alleged role in orchestrating the death of the former President. “For genuine reconciliation, everyone must be held accountable for the wrongs done to this country. ECOWAS, through ECOMOG, must explain its role on that fateful day when the country’s democratically elected President was forced to surrender to a rebel group before being subsequently killed along with 73 others. This was a massacre that receives little attention. We are encouraged by the establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court in Liberia,” Rep. Debee said.
“This is going to be an ongoing effort; ECOWAS must answer for its role in the Liberian civil war, particularly in the events that led to Doe’s death. Over 250,000 lives were reportedly lost in these conflicts, and we believe that many of these deaths could have been prevented if ECOWAS had acted as a true peacekeeping referee.”
“During the war, ECOMOG had both the authority and capacity to stop the fighting through diplomatic means rather than orchestrating the killing of a key figure like Doe. This is why General Quandu, the force commander at the time, must be called to account for Doe’s death and testify about his involvement in this tragic event. We urge Grand Gedeans and all well-meaning Liberians to join us because we are advocating for justice.”
Rep. Debee emphasized that President Doe and those killed at the Freeport of Monrovia did not die as a result of crossfire; rather, the incident should rightly be described as a massacre.
By Emmanuel Weedee-Conway
