Overview of the Monrovia Freeport in Liberia

The first week of January, 2000 I travelled from Ghana to Liberia to explore the potential for the natural wealth of the villages in the country to be used to provide the material resources needed for the development of the community and to improve the quality of life for the people.
I was in touch with several Liberians including someone ... a General in the Taylor army ... who said he was the brother of Charles Taylor. I saw his Diplomatic Passport which supported this, but maybe it was fake, one never knows!
I knew something of the rich natural resources, including diamonds, gold, timber, iron ore, etc that are in Liberia. I had been coming to Liberia, and other parts of West Africa since the 1970s and understood something of the nature of the Liberian people and their leadership, going back to the Tolberts. Obviously things had changed a lot since the Doe coup and then the civil waw, but I was fairly confident that my thinking would be fairly well received.
I never got to see Charles Taylor myself ... but instead was kept away by several high level army officers who were demanding payment in advance to see Taylor. They were 'gatekeepers' and nothing more, and were using their position simply to extract bribes.
Eventually, after a few days and many meetings, I said 'no way' very bluntly to one of these Generals who was furious and walked out angrily. About an hour later just as it was getting dark, a truckload of soldiers started to circle the hotel I was staying at in the middle of town (Monrovia). This was not good. I was the only guest in the hotel ... the Holiday Inn ... but no connection with the Holiday Inn of the United States.
I had been planning to stay in Liberia at least a few more days, but at this point I decided enough was enough. I waited until about 9 pm, and when the army truck was on the other side of the hotel, walked and ran away from the hotel, got into a nondescript local taxi and headed for the airport.
The airport, Robertsfield, is about 50 km outside Monrovia. There were military checkpoints every few kilometers, and I was scared stiff that they would be alerted to my disappearance from the hotel.
In retrospect, the soldiers at the checkpoints were probably more concerned about the possibility of 'rebels' heading into Monrovia to stir up trouble than a single expatriate heading out of town ... but that did not occur to me until a lot later. I got to the airport and was incredibly relieved when I got through the boarding formalities and onto a plane. A couple of hours later I was back in Ghana!