Liberia shuts 'hide-out' cemetery

Liberia's largest cemetery has been closed by the president because it is being used as a criminal hide-out.

It has become a favourite haunt for Monrovia's underworld after makeshift structures in the capital's slums were demolished and squatters evicted.

The assistant information minister said the graveyard had been turned into a drug den, which would not be tolerated.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said the city centre Palm Grove Cemetery had also run out of space.

As part of a clean-up operation, she ordered that the cemetery not only be fenced in, but bodies buried on the pathways be exhumed and interred in proper graves.

Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf came to power last year promising to rebuild the nation after 14 years of civil war.