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- WORLD, Page 43World NotesLIBERIABattle of The Tribes
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- Members of Liberia's Gio tribe have long suspected that
- President Samuel Doe, who belongs to the Krahn tribe, would
- like to eradicate their people. Lately their fears have been
- reinforced as Doe's troops moved into northern Nimba county,
- a Gio stronghold and hotbed of opposition to the government.
- The army's ostensible purpose is to rout a ragtag band of
- perhaps 200 insurgents, but the soldiers have exceeded that
- mandate, looting and burning towns and firing on Gio civilians.
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- No accurate death tally is available, but several hundred
- are thought to have died. Up to 100,000 Nimba residents have
- fled their homes, crossing into the neighboring Ivory Coast or
- Guinea, or hiding out in the bush.
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- The U.S., a strong backer of Doe, has assigned two military
- advisers to counsel the Liberian command on how to restore and
- maintain army discipline. But asked when the killing would
- stop, one Monrovia-based diplomat gave this reply: "When the
- army runs out of ammunition."
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