How a nation moved from war to democracy

Liberians go to the polls next Tuesday to elect a new president and government, the first since the end of civil war. This is a chronology of some of the key events along the road from war to lasting peace. December 1989 – On Christmas Day, Charles Taylor launches an uprising against then-president Samuel Doe. It quickly degenerates into an inter-ethnic conflict and then slowly transforms into a war between powerful rebel leaders. July 1997 – After more than a dozen peace and power-sharing deals fail to end the war, Taylor wins a presidential election by a landslide. His nearest rival, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf wins just 9.7 percent of the vote. October 1999 – The last members of the West African ECOMOG peacekeeping force, which intervened in 1990, leave Liberia. July 2000 – Rebels, identifying themselves as the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), attack towns in the north. Taylor says insurgents are backed by Guinea. Thousands of civilians flee. A new chapter of civil war begins. May 2001 – UN embargo comes into force to prevent Taylor selling weapons to rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone in return for diamonds. April 2003 – Fighting intensifies. A new rebel force, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), emerges and launches attacks in east of country. A UN-backed war crimes court indicts Taylor on 17 charges of war crimes for his role in Sierra Leone’s civil war. June 2003 – Peace talks held between Taylor and LURD in Ghanaian capital, Accra. On 17 June, warring factions sign a ceasefire but less than a week later fighting breaks out again. August 2003 – Nigerian soldiers arrive in Liberia, the first contingent of a force deployed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Taylor steps down. Government and rebels sign peace deal in Accra on 18 August, agreeing to set up a new broad-based power-sharing government. September 2003 – UN Security Council approves up to 15,000 peacekeepers for Liberia. October 2003 – Gyude Bryant takes office as chairman of the interim government and is charged with shepherding the country to elections by the end of October 2005. April 2004 – UN backed disarmament programme for former fighters finally begins after a false start in December. October 2004 – The first of some 300,000 Liberian refugees begin making their way home. August 2005 – Campaigning starts for peace-sealing elections with 22 candidates vying to be the country’s 23rd president.