Liberian President killed in coup to get state funeral

Liberia's former President, William Tolbert, is set to receive a symbolic reburial, 45 years after he was murdered during a coup and his body believed to be dumped in a mass grave.

Ten days after the President's killing, following trials by a kangaroo court, 13 of his cabinet were stripped, tied to stakes and then executed by a firing squad on a beach next to an army barracks in the capital, Monrovia.

None of the 14 corpses has been found but each man is due to get a state funeral at a ceremony attended by President Joseph Boakai and other dignitaries.

The event is seen as an act of reconciliation and part of a process of the country coming to terms with its violent recent past.

The April 12, 1980 coup in which 28-year-old Sgt Samuel Doe took power ended well over a century of political dominance by the minority Americo-Liberians, the descendants of freed black slaves who had come from the US in the 1800s.

Tolbert's nine-year presidency was marked by growing dissatisfaction with the ethnic inequalities.

His overthrow came at the start of a period of instability in Liberia, culminating in two devastating civil wars, that finally ended in 2003.

Doe himself met a violent death at the hands of rebels in 1990. His reburial in his home town last week was also ordered by the President.

"This is not just a burial; it is a moment of national reflection, a time to reconcile with our history, to heal from our wounds and to remember with respect and purpose," Boakai said at Doe's funeral.

For the families of those executed in 1980, the ceremony is both an act of remembrance and a way of bringing some respect to those who died.