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- WORLD, Page 37World NotesLIBERIADoe on The Run
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- Monrovia is fast becoming a lonely place. As the rebel
- National Patriotic Front advanced to within 20 miles of the
- capital last week, frightened residents fled to neighboring
- Sierra Leone. Many embassy staffers have departed, and high
- officials of President Samuel Doe's government have left town.
- Even Doe's wife and children have escaped to Britain.
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- The impetus is the wave of killings between the Gio and Mano
- tribes, who dominate the Front, and Doe's Krahn tribe
- supporters. Led by Charles Taylor, a Gio and former official
- in the Doe government, the Front's ranks have swelled to 5,000
- insurgents since the rebellion began last Christmas Eve. They
- now seem poised to overthrow the former master sergeant, whose
- regime has been accused of corruption, economic mismanagement
- and human rights abuses.
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- The panic intensified last week when Liberian troops invaded
- a United Nations compound in Monrovia where hundreds of Gio and
- Mano refugees were seeking protection. One security guard was
- killed, and as many as 40 refugees were abducted. In response,
- the U.S. dispatched a six-ship Navy flotilla to stand off the
- coast to evacuate American citizens if necessary.
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