LIBERIA: Working to Restore Confidence

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And preparing an economic shock treatment

It has been nearly five months since 17 Liberian soldiers burst into Monrovia's executive mansion and assassinated President William R. Tolbert Jr. That bloody coup abruptly ended more than a century of rule by descendants of the freed American slaves who founded the country in 1847. The seizure of power was shortly followed by gory public executions of 13 former officials and associates of the slain President. The new head of state, Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe, 28, has since faced a host of problems as head of the 28-member People's Redemption Council (P.R.C.). But there are signs that the new regime may be getting organized, as TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief Jack White discovered on a return visit to the Liberian capital:

"There was a lot of sympathy outside Liberia for change," says a civilian member of the new government. "But we destroyed most of it with the executions." Indeed, the brutal seaside killings made Liberia a pariah to its African neighbors. Doe was barred from attending a summit of the Economic Community of West African States in Togo last May. He subsequently refused to attend the July meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Sierra Leone after rejecting the precondition set by some of the O.A.U.'s most influential members: the immediate release of the late President's son, A.B. Tolbert, who had been snatched from asylum in Monrovia's French embassy by a gang of unruly soldiers. The embassy invasion touched off an angry row with Paris, one of Liberia's major European aid donors.

Since then, the badly shaken new rulers of Liberia have worked hard to restore the confidence of foreign governments and investors. Doe made a two-day visit to Tanzania and a four-day tour of Ethiopia as part of a fence-mending campaign among his African neighbors. He has pledged that there will be no more executions of political figures associated with the old regime. The widow of the President, Victoria Tolbert, was released from house arrest, and 38 political prisoners who had been rounded up during the early days of the revolution were freed. Conditions have improved for the 140 prisoners who remain in the stockade at Monrovia's Barclay Training Center. But Tolbert's son is still behind bars.

There has been less progress on the economic front. The P.R.C. inherited a country on the verge of bankruptcy. Says a U.S. banker in Monrovia: "If this were a company, Liberia would be in liquidation." Only $5 million was left in the national bank—not enough to cover Liberia's immediate debt payments. The country faced abnormally high costs for imports that had been negotiated by the Tolbert government. The council broke some of these contracts, but has failed to renegotiate a long-term oil-shipment deal that costs the nation 30% more than the current going rate. The country's foreign-dominated retail trade, meanwhile, has been crippled by a flight of capital and a severe credit shortage.