Calm Returns After Spate of Violence

Dozens of people died in a two-day spasm of gun battles in the capital, Monrovia, over the weekend after soldiers tried to arrest former Liberian warlord Roosevelt Johnson, who took refuge in the U.S. Embassy. Just days after the shooting died down, much appeared normal in the disarmingly relaxed seaside town. President Charles Taylor has promised that the U.S. Embassy will not come under attack. As stores reopened and people returned to work, platoons of soldiers headed to their barracks. Beneath the seeming normalcy, though, some people are nervous, recalling Liberia’s civil war that killed 150,000.