Observer @ 40: Liberia in the Drumbeat to War liberianobserver.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from liberianobserver.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Maureen Sieh
In its 40-year history, the Daily Observer has weathered many storms including five closures, imprisonment, and threats to its journalists and three fires for fulfilling its watchdog role of exposing corruption, widespread human rights abuses meted against the Liberian people by their government.
One of the fires was in response to a story I wrote about the mysterious arrest and disappearance of Major General Kemeh, a son of Nimba County and former secretary general of the defunct People’s Redemption Council (PRC). Kemeh and his wife were spending the Christmas holiday in Nimba when former President Charles Taylor invaded Liberia from neighboring Ivory Coast on Christmas Eve 1989. The Kemehs were returning to Monrovia when they were stopped by government soldiers. General Kemeh was arrested, and the rest of the family returned home to Paynesville.