Friday, November 11, 2011

What is Going on Under Your Leadership is not Our Destiny (An Open Letter to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf)

H.E. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf                                                            
President of Liberia
Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs
Executive Mansion, P.O. Box 9001, Capitol Hill, Monrovia
Republic of Liberia

Dear Madam President:

Kirkpatrick Weah
I write as an advocate for human rights, a friend and to a lady with whom I shared a cold political prison and unacceptable place while incarcerated (1985). I campaigned for you in 1997 and 2005. We had hope in your ability to deliver by uniting the country and to mitigate the most poverty striking condition of our people. Every time I think of you and your government, I think of the notes we exchanged on September 9, 1985 at the Post Stockade. In reply to my second note to you, you said “one day we will have the destiny of our country in our hands.” Madam President, the destiny of our country that is now in your hands looks like the same under Tolbert and Doe when it comes to police violence against journalists, innocent civilians, corruption and surrounding yourself with sycophants, who will be in the vanguard to condemn you tomorrow, when things get out of hands. You fought against these things in the past. This is why we slept on cold floors from one prison to another. Madam President, have you forgotten our difficult days during the struggle to dawn a new day in our country? Have you forgotten what we stood against yesterday? What is going on under your leadership ( killings and police brutality) are not the destiny we talked about in prison.

My eyes are filled with tears for the victims on November 7, 2011, like that of April 14, 1979, the invasion of the University of Liberia 1984 and the civil war (1989-2003).

Liberians in the Diaspora, both your supporters and members of opposition parties, are saddened. Today, November 7, 2011 the police of Liberia shot and killed innocent civilians and wounded many, who had gathered at the Party Headquarters of the Congress for Democratic Change, CDC. This is the second time of blood bath in this year, including the invasion of GW Gibson. The right to assemble, Madam President, is a fundamental right that cannot be derogated save an emergency order is given by the government.

Today, President Obama issued out a statement and said “We encourage all security forces in Liberia to exercise maximum restraint and to allow peaceful protest.” I have heard America making similar statement like this and later, their action went another way. This statement concerns me a lot.

Reports concerning the wanton shooting of civilians is claimed by the police as self-defense. Madam President, under international laws and laws of our country, there must be or had to exist "a necessity of self-defense, instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and no moment of deliberation.” It is argued that any action taken in the case of the police brutality, shooting and killing “must be proportional, since the act justified by the necessity of self-defense, must be limited by that necessity, and kept clearly within it."

Madam President, from videos being watched and consultations with human rights agencies, both local and international, the preponderance evidence for the use of “self-defense by the police is very hard to fathom. The “necessity of self-defense” established under international law and ours is being abused all the time by the police of our country.

Madam President, you just got a Nobel Peace Prize. Congratulations! Having said that, the killing and police brutality places a dark cloud over the worthiness of your receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. This is not good for you and our country. 

I am pleading with you to stop the continuous police violence owing, but not limited to, the following reasons:

1.      A repeat of Libya, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, etc in Liberia. A specter of chaotic events in the countries supra is haunting our country; 

2.      The peace, for which your government and the international community contributed, could be destroyed and Liberia could slip back to its past of fourteen years of civil war; 

3.      Reconciling the Liberian people through the TRC mandate and other traditional methods of reconciliation could be jeopardized; 

4.      The reconstruction of our country and betterment of the lives of our people for which your government assisted in eradicating Liberia’s debts will be placed in ruin; 

5.        I am pleading with your government to observe our laws and international law for peace and the protection of all Liberians regardless of political affiliation and aliens within our borders. 

6.      Please investigate and remove the Police Director and have a well knowledgeable and trained police officer to head our national police force, save he is getting order directly from you to use life bullets to take the lives of innocent people and to brutalize our compatriots who are exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, the right to peacefully assemble, etc. 

7.      Your legacy of contributing to upholding the laws of our land, your fight to uplift our down trodden people from poverty, diseases, mitigation of unemployment and to improve educational facilities and reconstruction of roads, is being destroyed almost every year since January 2006, from the work of the police and those who are stealing from our national covers. Please do something about this. 

8.      Like me, Madam President, you have children. Please do not pay lips service in punishing those who killed other people children in the name of unproven necessity of self-defense. The case of the police. 

As a human rights group, we will continue to advice your leadership on what we considered violation of international laws and the laws of our dear country. This, we will do without let or hindrance.

May the Lord save our country as we mourn for those killed on November 7, 2011.


Kirkpatrick Weah

Signed: Kirkpatrick Weah

Executive Director, LIHRRWO

Your former political prison mate ( 1985)

C/o Embassy of the Republic of Liberia, Washington DC.

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Inside Liberia with Bernard Gbayee Goah

Everyone is a genius

Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. – A Einstein

Drawing the line in Liberia

Crimes sponsored, committed, or masterminded by handful of individuals cannot be blamed upon an entire nationality. In this case, Liberians! The need for post-war justice is a step toward lasting peace, stability and prosperity for Liberia. Liberia needs a war crimes tribunal or some credible legal forum that is capable of dealing with atrocities perpetrated against defenseless men, women and children during the country's brutal war. Without justice, peace shall remain elusive and investment in Liberia will not produce the intended results. - Bernard Gbayee Goah



Men with unhealthy characters should not champion any noble cause

They pretend to advocate the cause of the people when their deeds in the dark mirror nothing else but EVIL!!
When evil and corrupt men try to champion a cause that is so noble … such cause, how noble it may be, becomes meaningless in the eyes of the people - Bernard Gbayee Goah.

If Liberia must move forward ...

If Liberia must move forward in order to claim its place as a civilized nation amongst world community of nations, come 2017 elections, Liberians must critically review the events of the past with honesty and objectivity. They must make a new commitment to seek lasting solutions. The track records of those who are presenting themselves as candidates for the position of "President of the Republic of Liberia" must be well examined. Liberians must be fair to themselves because results from the 2011 elections will determine the future of Liberia’s unborn generations to come - Bernard Gbayee Goah

Liberia's greatest problem!

While it is true that an individual may be held responsible for corruption and mismanagement of funds in government, the lack of proper system to work with may as well impede the process of ethical, managerial, and financial accountability - Bernard Gbayee Goah

What do I think should be done?

The situation in Liberia is Compound Complex and cannot be fixed unless the entire system of government is reinvented.
Liberia needs a workable but uncompromising system that will make the country an asylum free from abuse, and other forms of corruption.
Any attempt to institute the system mentioned above in the absence of rule of law is meaningless, and more detrimental to Liberia as a whole - Bernard Gbayee Goah

Liberia's Natural Resources
Besides land water and few other resources, most of Liberia’s dependable natural resources are not infinite, they are finite and therefore can be depleted.
Liberia’s gold, diamond, and other natural resources will not always be an available source of revenue generation for its people and its government. The need to invent a system in government that focuses on an alternative income generation method cannot be over emphasized at this point - Bernard Gbayee Goah

Liberia needs a proper system
If Liberians refuse to erect a proper system in place that promotes the minimization of corruption and mismanagement of public funds by government institutions, and individuals, there will come a time when the value of the entire country will be seen as a large valueless land suited on the west coast of Africa with some polluted bodies of waters and nothing else. To have no system in place in any country is to have no respect for rule of law. To have no respect for rule of law is to believe in lawlessness. And where there is lawlessness, there is always corruption - Bernard Gbayee Goah

Solving problems in the absence of war talks

As political instability continues to increase in Africa, it has become abundantly clear that military intervention as a primary remedy to peace is not a durable solution. Such intervention only increases insecurity and massive economic hardship. An existing example which could be a valuable lesson for Liberia is Great Britain, and the US war on terror for the purpose of global security. The use of arms whether in peace keeping, occupation, or invasion as a primary means of solving problem has yield only little results. Military intervention by any country as the only solution to problem solving will result into massive military spending, economic hardship, more fear, and animosity as well as increase insecurity. The alternative is learning how to solve problems in the absence of war talks. The objective of such alternative must be to provide real sustainable human security which cannot be achieved through military arm intervention, or aggression. In order to achieve results that will make the peaceful coexistence of all mankind possible, there must be a common ground for the stories of all sides to be heard. I believe there are always three sides to every story: Their side of the story, Our side of the story, and The truthBernard Gbayee Goah

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