Liberia, 2003 — palace coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 4 June 2003, the pivotal date in the collapse of Charles Taylor's presidency in Liberia amid the LURD and MODEL rebel advance and his war-crimes indictment. On 4 June 2003 the Special Court for Sierra Leone unsealed a 17-count war-crimes indictment against the sitting Liberian president Charles Taylor while he was attending peace talks in Accra, Ghana, the same day those talks opened, over his support for the RUF in the Sierra Leone civil war. Two days later, on 6 June, the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy launched its first assault on Monrovia.
During Taylor's absence at the Ghana talks, the United States government was alleged to have urged Vice President Moses Blah to seize power; on his return Taylor briefly dismissed Blah before reinstating him days later. Under mounting rebel pressure and international demands that he step down, Taylor resigned on 11 August 2003 and went into exile in Nigeria, handing power to Blah. The 4 June 2003 coding matches this decisive date, with the palace-coup framing reflecting the alleged move to have Blah take power as Taylor's regime crumbled.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
45006042003
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Taylor was indicted on 4 June and resigned on 11 August 2003, handing power to VP Blah.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
National Post
Breaking News.ie
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →