Monrovia | Wednesday
Police in Liberia, where a state of emergency took effect last week, on Tuesday closed down the independent Analyst newspaper, arresting its managing editor and three staff members, witnesses said.
Managing editor Stanley Seakor, a reporter, the paper’s business manager and an office assistant were manhandled and beaten up on their arrest by special operations police, the witnesses said.
Police Director Paul Mulbah told reporters the move was prompted by articles seen as inflammatory.
”I personally supervised the raid on the paper’s offices and ordered them sealed,” he said, adding angrily: ”Look at the headlines: ‘Normalcy Slips Away: Liberians Drowning in Horrors’. ‘Emergency Power Pinches Businesses: What Rights and Freedoms Can the President Suspend?’
”These people are not out for peace. While we are risking our lives to ensure that peace prevails in the country, they are busy poisoning the minds of the populace,” he said.
”What we are experiencing now is no child’s play, and I will go after any journalist who tries to subvert the peace,” Mulbah added.
Liberian President Charles Taylor declared a state of emergency last Friday as rebels closed in on the capital, Monrovia.
He has warned critics not to oppose measures imposed to deal with the rebel insurgency, the information ministry said on Tuesday.
During the press briefing, reporters saw the Analyst newsmen being brought before the police director.
”Take them to the criminal cell,” Mulbah said, adding: ”I ordered it, and any of you can quote me in your publications.”
Attempts by officials of the Press Union of Liberia to hold talks with Mulbah over the arrests proved futile.
Dissidents who opposed Taylor during Liberia’s bloody civil war from 1989 and 1997 unleashed an insurgency in 1999 in the country’s northern counties near the border with Guinea.
The rebel war has now spread from northern Liberia to other parts of the country.
The town of Klay, on Monrovia’s doorstep, was the scene of fighting between government troops and rebels on Thursday and Friday, forcing thousands to flee towards Monrovia, just 40 kilometres distant.
Taylor said Saturday that government forces had retaken the key town. – Sapa